


I remember you, Handsome

by Csribbles



Series: A memory [1]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: And holo Jack, Angst, Badass Rhys, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, I just rly like jack ok, Like from bl2 not just tps, M/M, Many chapters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships To Be Added, Possible Character Death, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, TPS Jack, Theres also Handsome Jack, Vault of the Traveler Spoilers, Violence, other characters to be added - Freeform, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-06-07 21:03:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 35
Words: 41,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6824038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Csribbles/pseuds/Csribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rhys gets to the tresure of the Vault of the traveler, this wasn't what he was hoping for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Opening the Vault and getting inside had taken long enough. Getting the treasure should've been easy. But when he got there with Fiona, and they opened the box or whatever it was, he found himself teleported away. Everything was spinning and moving and changing size and he was pretty sure he was going to get sick. But instead of puking, he passed out.

 

"I think he's waking up." Rhys heard someone say as he started waking up. He tried to open his eyes but they didn't listen. He chose to just wait it out.

"Huh? Oh, good, good. Go make the kid some coffe or somethin' wouldya, and be a dear and bring me some too." Another, more familiar voice spoke this time. Rhys tried to peer one of his eyes open, only the real one this time and so he could have a look at these people, and succeded a little bit atleast. He could tell that there were human like figures in the room, but didn't recognize them as individuals. When the smaller form left, the bigger one walked to Rhys, and squatted next to his bed. That's when he recognized him.

"Goodmorning pumpkin. Hope ya slept well. I mean ofcourse ya did, it's my bed and what else would I have than the best? Anyway, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. How come you appear into my room, like you'd been teleported, and slept, what, thirty hours atleast?"

"Han-Han-Wha?" Rhys tried to sit up but Jacks hand pushed him down.

"Now now cupcake, you're not sitting up before I'm sure you wont attack me or pass out on me."

"N-no-" Rhys swallowed. He couldn't believe his eyes. Uh, eye. It was Jack, but... without the mask. He stared at the man in shock. This wasn't the Jack he knew. He blinked his open eye. Jack was still there, so he wasn't hallucinating. "Ha-Handsome Jack?"

"Uh... I don't know if I should be weirded out or say thanks." A moment of silence. "Since one is sorta obvious, I'm not going to say thanks. How do you know my name's Jack, kiddo?"

"Because... because you're _the_ Handsome Jack. Ofcourse I know you." Rhys stared at the man with his real eye, watching him stare at him with confusion.

"What the heck are you on kid?" Jacks voice was filled with annoyance. Rhys winced.

"I- listen, Jack, I get it if you're mad. I-I would be too but-" Jack waved a hand to shut him up.

"Listen, you're starting to creep me out here. Quit it out."

"Jack-" Rhys started but was cut off by the sound of a door opening. He tired to pry his ECHO eye open. A small smile appeared on his face as it opened. He noticed that it was having trouble connecting but succeeded in the end. He chose to scan the man while he looked at the person who was entering.

[First name: Jack

Last name: ----

Age: 29

Career: Hyperion codemonkey, Vaulthunter

Mood: Weirded out

Extra: He's super handsome.]

"Jack, heres the coffee." Rhys exited the scan of Jack and looked at the woman. She was short with blue hair, and tattoos on her chest and arm. A siren, perhaps? He scanned her aswell.

[Name: Maya

Age: 19

Height: 5'6

Mood: Annoyed.

Favourite colour: Purple

Extra: She's a siren, she'll fuck you up.]

"Place it somewhere and leave us. Thanks Maya. _You're a dear_." Rhys could almost hear her roll her eyes as she placed the cups down and walked out.

"She's a siren?" Rhys asked, mostly to change topic.

"How did you- oh right, the tattoos."

"Actually, that and I scanned her. So I know her age, how tall she is and her mood. I can also, if I want to, find out almost anything out with this thing." Rhys brought his real finger up to tap below his echo eye.

"What? No way... that's like... really advanced, where the hell did ya get this from?" He was... impressed? No way. It couldn't be. He was faking it, he had to be.

"It's Hyperion, plus it's really not as advanced as it could be." Rhys said varily.

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Jacks mouth was slightly agape as he stared at Rhys.

"Yeaaah... I know, I was supposed to do it last year but me and Vaughn kinda ran out od money because my arm broke down and we had to buy a new one and-"

"Where are you from?" Jack cut him off. Rhys couldn't tell what the man was thinking, his face was unreadable. He frowned slightly.

"I'm... uh, I was from Elpis from the start but moved to Helios a lil later, and then when Helios crashed down I moved to the old Atlas facility in Old Haven as the CEO of both Hyperion and Atlas. I mean, I am planning on keeping Hyperion alive, don't wor-" Rhys was cut off again, but by a palm instead of words this time. Jack wasn't even looking at him as he let out a loud sigh and dropped his hand back to his lap.

"So you mean to tell me, that someone like _you_ took over Hyperion _and_ Atlas? And that Helios has crashed down?" Jack grabbed him by the neck and walked to a window, pressing Rhys' face against the cold glass. "You _dare_ to tell me, that that spacestatipn up there, that we're looking at right now, has crashed down?"

"I-I- no way." Rhys stuttered. "I-it can't be." He looked at Jack who let him stand up straight again. "I- my echo really didn't just mess with me. You _are_ a Hyperion code monkey. You _are_ 29\. You... you _aren't_ _the_ Handsome Jack. That's why your mask is missing. It's not just cause of a bodydoubles body. It's just... you." He reached a hand towards Jack, but it was grabbed before he got to touch the growling man.

"What the hell are you on about!?" Jack voice pooled with annoyance.

"...it has to be. It just has to be." Rhys looked out of the window, at the spacestation in the sky.

"Don't leave me hanging here cupcake." Jack growled and Rhys' eyes turned towards the other man slowly.

_"Timetravel."_


	2. The Vault of the Traveler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys tells Jack about Hyperion and about how he got to where he is, and ends up meeting the gang.
> 
> Or;
> 
> Incase someone hasn't played all the games or finished the games then heres some info so you dont just die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah this is just like infoinfoinfo more info idk
> 
> So yeah, hope you enjoy readin :D

" _Timetravel_."

" _Okay_ , what kind of drugs are you on? Yknow, maybe I should just shoot you-"

"No, no!" Rhys cut him off, slighyly terrified. He shook his hands slightly. "I'm serious. I- uh, maybe you should sit down. I'll tell you the whole story." Jack hesitated for a while before sitting down next to Rhys.

"Fine. If you convince you, then I wont kill you."

Rhys took a deep breath before starting his story.

"I used to work for Hyperion, I lived on Helios. I was just like most people, looked up to you, trying to climb the ladders to get closer to you, even before you became the CEO of Hyperion, Handsome Jack, after finding his first Vault. And... getting branded, or whatever. You had this cool mask thing on yknow? Ah, anyways. One day you left to open a new Vault. The Vault of the Warrior. Down on Pandora- here, here on Pandora. It was a bunch of Vault Hun-bandits, you call, called them bandits who fought against you. You were killed along with the Warrior. Then, I still keep climbing the ladder, and I was about to get Hendersons job, but Vasquez, or Wallethead, stole it from me. I happened to hear something about him and a Vault key deal, so I stole the deal along with ten million dollars for the key. Stuff happen, the key is fake, we, uh, me and Vaughn, meet Fiona and Sasha, and we find the Gortys project. Along with it, and an ID drive I found from dr. Nakayama, I also got you into my head. We became sorta friends until we got to Helios. You made me President, uploaded yourself into Helios and pretty much tried to kill me. Because I didn't want to stuff an endosceleton inside my body. So, I uh, crash down Helios and stuff, grab the rights for Atlas and head for Old Haven. Then I'm found by a few friends, we get the Vault, and me and Fiona go inside. We see this box there, and we open it. And then I found myself teleporting and I woke up here." Rhys had kept an eye out for any sudden movements. Jack had frowned, grinned, tilted his head and lived up with his story, but now he only looked confused.

"Look, kiddo. That all makes sense, especially if I look at your arm and eye, and I mean, I'm great and I will become the CEO but... still, it's insane! And me dying? Pfft. Look, what about this. You stick with me and my group for now, maybe we can use your help or something. Who knows." Jack seemed hesitant with what he was saying, so Rhys only nodded along. "Can you use a gun?"

"Uh, kinda? I know how to use this," Rhys pulls out his stun baton and shows it to Jack. "Stun baton. Got it from a... person."

"Huh. Hyperion?" Rhys nodded. "Neat. So, now that we have that figured, we should come up with a story for the gang." Jack mumbled, crossing his arms. Rhys looked at the man with s tilted head.

"The uh, the gang?" Jack looked at Rhys and nodded.

"Tim, Aurelia, Wil, Athena, Maya, Axton."

"Um, okay." Rhys mumbled.

"So, you were on our side the whole time, technically, and you were searching info about the enemies plans. Yeah?" Rhys nodded. "So, you were suddenly caught and teleported away somewhere and you just happened to come here." Jack said with a proud smile. Rhys just stared at him expecting him to continue but when the man didn't, Rhys tilted his head.

"That's... it?" He asked, careful not to word it badly so the man wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"Well, yeah. I mean sure, maybe its... yknow, a bit unbelivable or whatever, but you seem smart kid. I don't exactly trust you but... yknow, you might be useful." Jack moved his hands along as he spoke, like always. He finished by standing up and putting his hands on his hips. He stared at Rhys until he sighed and nodded, standing up aswell.

"I mean, if you say so." Rhys said, crossing his arms.

"Come on then, gotta introduce you. See if they like you." Jack was always so talkative. Rhys gave a small chuckle as the man kept talking about what his friends were like. It reminded Rhys of what he had been like before all the Vault stuff. He thought about if Vaughn was okay. Would he ever see him again? He frowned.

"Rhys? Ya comin' pumpkin?" Jacks hand on his shoulder awoke him from his thoughts. He looked at the older man for a while before giving a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I'm right behind you."

"Good. Coz' it seemed like you were out of it. Don't want you to be passing out on me here, do we now?" Jack grinned and opened the door, walking out of it. Rhys followed. "Hey everyone! Come over 'ere! I gotta little something something to show you guys!" Rhys was partly hiding behind Jack, until a strong hand pulled him to Jacks side. "This right here is Rhys. He's our pal now." When no one said anything, Jack glared at them. "Introduce yourselves!"

"Hmph. Athena." Rhys nodded at her, he already knew her. He frowned slightly and looked at the next person. It was a very buff guy, and Rhys gave him the most akward smile ever.

"Hi. I'm Wilhelm." Rhys waved and mumbled his own name.

"Hello darling. I'm Aurelia Hammerlock. Pleased to meet you." She was tall, she was pretty. He looked at the girl she'd seen earlier. Maya. The siren.

"Sup? I'm Maya." Rhys smiled at her and she smiled back. He looked at the last person.

"Axton." The man said. No hi, no nothing. He didn't even look at Rhys.

"Well, that's them. Exept for Tim. He's uh, where is he?"

"Oh, he's... dealing with some stuff I guess. He sometimes forgets he has your face and freaks out, but I'm sure he'll be here soon." Maya said, scratching her neck. "With soon I mean he'll come when theres food."

"Well, allright. Anyone want to make food for Timmy? Aurelia, would you be kind?" Jack turned to look at the woman standing with her arms crossed. She rolled her eyes.

" _Fine_ Jack, I'll do it. For _Timothy_ , ofcourse, not _you_."

"Thanks babe."

"Anything for the little sunray." Ahe said as she reached the stairs.

"Hey! Remember it's _my face_!" Jack shouted after her.

"But not your _personality_!" She laughed back.

Rhys chuckled. This could be fun.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on Tumblr: ninosoderholm ninosoderholm.tumblr.com


	3. The call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys gets to know some people, and Jack has something to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey again, sorry for not updating in such a long time I feel horrible Im sorry dont worry this fic is not dead Im just lazy

After a while of just talking to the people who were associated with Jack, Rhys found that they were pretty cool. He even spoke to Axton, who had seemed pretty cold at first but as he had a little chit chat with the man, he found out that he's actually a really nice guy.

"So, when Jack found me just shooting them, he decided that I could be of use on this mission and, well, here I am." Axton gave a small smile, gesturing to himself with the hand that wasn't holding a beer.

"Oh, allright. So he, uh, he likes that huh? Shooting things." As if that wasn't already obvious. Rhys chuckled.

"Well, he personally doesn't, that's why he wanted me around, I guess." Rhys frowned deeply at that. Jack had really changed, huh. "So what about you?" Axton asked, brining the beer to his lips, taking a small sip of the drink. Rhys' eyes widened and he looked at the man, confused.

" _Wha_..?"

"Why did Jack take you with us?" Axton asked again, sitting slightly straighter.

"He-" Rhys started, doupting himself for a while. Why had Jack actually taken him with? There was no way the man actually believed him, no. No way. Rhys shook his head before restarting the sentence. "I gave him information of the enemy and such, and we have a few other reasons-"

"So you guys fucked?" The blonde cut him off, causing him to flush and shake his head agressivly.

"W-what- _no_!" He glared at the man, who suddenly turned to look in the direction of the door to the room. Rhys heard a chuckle, a way too familiar chuckle come from the door.

"Aw kiddo, don't hurt my feelings there!" Jack teased as he leaned against the door. "So you're gossiping about me?"

" _No_ -" Rhys said, but Axton shrugged, opened his mouth like the idiot he was, and spoke, cutting Rhys off.

"Kinda."

"Ofcourse ya were." Atleast he was still super into himself. That hadn't changed. "Kid, c'mon. We gotta talk." Rhys swallowed, grabbing the hand that was offered and let Jack pull him up.

"You _totally_ fucked."

" _ **No**_!" Rhys hissed at Axton, and glared at Jack who wiggled his eyebrows, and laughed along with Axton before dragging Rhys along with him. They ended up in what Rhys assumed to be Jacks room. It was the one he'd awoken in. Rhys sat down on the bed.

"So, uh, _Rhys_? Mind telling me the _actual_ truth?" Jack asked as he closed the door behind him, turning to look at him.

"What-what do you mean?" Rhys slowly asked, he felt his heartbeat speed up and a lump form in his throat. So Jack really didn't believe him.

"I'm not dumb enough to believe that big fat lie of yours kid, so _chopchop_ , tell me the truth." Jack crossed his arms, walking closer to the bed. Rhys stared up at the man in desperation.

"I-I am!" He squeaked. Jack was infront of him now. He felt sweat drop down his face, and he felt like he was going to pass out. He'd never been this close to an angry Jack, atleast _physically_.

"And what are those _tattoos_? They're _awfully blue_. You got _more_ of them?" Jack leaned down, Rhys backing up on the bed as Jack poked his chest. He yelped slightly at the second poke.

" **No**! _Stop_ it!" He lifted both of his arms infront of him, preparong himself for a blow. But that didn't happen. Instead, the hand started beeping. " _Wha_ -" He answered the call.

_"Rhys? Rhys where are you? We've been looking **everywhere** for you and Fiona, in the Vault, in the Helios crash site and the Atlas place-y, but we can't find you anywhere! I suggested that you'd gone back in time or something because it's the Vault of the Traveler and all that but Vaughn and Sasha believe you're hiding somewhere, trying to get Handsome Jack to live **again**. For the **third** time! I think that man is actually a **cat**!"_ It was Gortys' happy voice coming from the other end, and Rhys stared at her in shock, then up at Jack, and then at her.

"Gortys!? _Ohmygod_ I have never been this happy to hear your voice!" He beamed. Gortys smiled at him. "I did indeed go back in time, um, you know when Handsome Jack became CEO? Yeah. I'm, uh. In that time-line. He hasn't even found that one vault yet, and Dahl hasn't been defeated yet from blowing up Elpis. You know what I'm talking about?" Gortys slowly nodded, and looked over her shoulder.

_"Vaughn? What year is he in?"_ Gortys shouted over his shoulder. Instead of hearing an answer, he saw Gortys being pushed aside and Vaughns face appeared.

_"Bro!"_ Vaughn shouted, a smile on his face, and Rhys' grin widened at the sight of his friend.

"Bro!" Rhys glanced over at Jack who looked like he'd seen a ghost. He noticed Rhys staring, and furrowed his brows, as if to say _"WTF"_ with his face. Rhys' grin fell slightly.

_"Were you being serious? Have you seen Jack yet?"_ Instead of saying anything, Rhys turned his friend to face Jack. He heard the man gasp. _"Ha-Handsome Jack, sir!"_ He turned the hand back to himself.

" _Relax_ , you're in different timelines. Besides, how can we be talki-" Rhys raised a brow, "why are you staring at my chest?"

_"You're uh. You're... glowing."_ Vaughn mumbled and Rhys turned his eyes down. His tattoos were infact glowing. He looked up at Jack whose eyes were filled with confusion and anger.

"I-I swear it's not what it looks like-"

"Finish the call." Jack said, cutting him off. There was something terrifyingly calm in the mans voice. Rhys furrowed his brows.

"What?" He tilted his head, hearing Vaughn shouting at him not to do it.

" ** _End it already!_** " Jack shouted and Rhys quickly shut the ECHO-call, not listening to Vaughns complaints. "Now take off your shirt." When Rhys didn't move, Jack pulled out his gun. "I said, **_take off... your shirt._** " He growled, and Rhys took off his vest and his jacket and then his shirt, leaving him shirtless, with all his tattoos showing for the man. Jack stared at him in shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie! Lookit that! Betcha werent expecting that!


	4. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The way Jack reacts to Rhys being a siren was quite unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry for not updating in so long...

"You're a... a siren?" Jack growled after a long while of silence. Rhys swallowed, scratching his neck akwardly as the mans eyes roamed his body.

"I- um..." He stuttered, bringing his arms infront of his torso, trying to keep his pride. Jack groaned and looked away, rubbing his face with his hand.

"The whole me not believing your story part could have been stopped from happening if you just told me that!" He muttered, laying his hand back down into his lap. It took a while before the man turned to look at Rhys again. He reached over to grab Rhys' robotic wrist and pull the arm out of the way. Rhys didn't fight back as his hand was pressed into the bed, and Jack grabbed his other wrist with his other hand and pulled the arm straight. He inspected the markings, bringing one hand to press at them, his fingers dragging along the skin. He followed them all the way to his chest, where he pressed his entire palm flat against him.

"Wha-?"

"I miss my baby girl. Haven't seen her in a while..." Jack mumbled under his breath. He probably wasn't completley aware that he was speaking.

"Angel, right?" Rhys questioned, knowing the answer was yes. Jacks eyes widened and he looked into the mismatched eyes.

"How..." He slightly tilted his head and Rhys just nodded with a small frown. He knew because Jack told him. It made him slightly sad how this Jack didn't know him yet.

"She's, I'm guessing, around 10?" Jack nodded, and Rhys thought back to the way Jack said Angel had died. The man seemed so loving of her... how could he let that happen?

"She's 13, yes..." Jack slowly said. There was a moment of silence between them before Rhys sighed.

"And a siren." His gaze dropped down to his lap, where he'd brought his robotic arm after Jack let go.

"A strong one, at that." Jack admitted. Rhys knew that already.

"With a brain the size of a planet." He chuckled, bringing his eyes up to meet the olders again. Jack stared at him for a while before nodding and grinning.

"Heh, yeah. That's my babygirl." They kept talking about Angel after that. Rhys didn't mention anything about the fact that he knew that Angels mother was dead, and how she died. He would have been dead if he would have. He was thankful Jack only spoke of the child Angel, not asking Rhys anything about the adult version.

Rhys also found out about how the girl just loved to play a game with Jack where he would throw some object and she would try to catch it with her powers, and sometimes she would even explode it. He also found out that Angel lived at a mansion on Pandora, nearby where the Bunker was going to be. It worried Rhys greatly, but he didn't let it show.

"So... how is she now? Um, in your time?" Rhys' face paled at that. He had been scared that Jack would ask him that, and hoping he wouldn't. He opened his mouth to answer, but just as he did, the door busted open and a pair of bandits entered the room. Jack let out a shriek, scrambling up onto the bed, looking for his gun before pulling it out and pointing it at them with shaky hands. "Don't come any closer! I will shoot!"

"Doupt it, kiddo." The bandits eyes shifted to Rhys. "Well what are you? I could get you into good use, princess." The man grinned darkly, walking towards Rhys who shot up from his seat and threw his marked hand forwards.

"I'm a siren. I can literally explode your heads off. Or cocks, that would be more painful." Rhys growled, his robotic hand curling into a fist, his ECHO eye scanning the movements of the bandits. The while of controlling Atlas had taught him how to act in situations like these. Sadly it didn't always help just to bluff. The bandits hesitated for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

"You're a guy, you can't be a siren!" One of them laughed, and Rhys just growled in annoyance. He pulled out his Stun baton and opened it, striking it right into the middle of the closest bandits chest, sending him flying away. He grinned, glaring at the other guys. They were staring at him in terror.

He felt something strange at his back. He glanced at his arm to find it glowing.

Wings. It had to be.

"Is that so?" He snarled, concentrating his powers at one of the bandits, succeeding in phasing him into a bubble. He kept him there as he glared at the others. "Jack, shoot."

"I-" Jack hesitated.

" _ **JUST DO IT!**_ " Without a seconds delay, bullets flew into the bubble and it filled with blood. Rhys grinned, dropping the dead man down as he neared the others. He didn't need to take many steps before they were all running out of the room, finally letting him breathe out. He looked over to Jack who was staring at him in suprise. "What?"

"That was so badass." Jack blurted out. Rhys stared at the man in suprise.

"I..."

"Come here so I can give you a hug!" Rhys cocked a brow at the cheery voice but walked back over to the bed. The older man dropped down from it and sat on the edge, pulling Rhys infront of him. The boy furrowed his brows, about to ask what the hell Jack was doing when the man just pulled him down into a hug. "Yep, you're staying." Akwardly, he hugged Jack back, who ended up pulling him down onto the bed, ontop of Jack.

"J-Jack!" He yelped, holding himself up from crashing into the older mans chest. Jack seemed to ingore it and kept pulling him down, and he was able to resist it up until there was a sharp tug and his arms gave under. He landed into the chest with a loud grunt.

"Damn, kid. That was _really_ hot, yknow..." Rhys felt himself blush at the words whispered into his ear with that sexy voice of that sexy man. He let out a low groan into the mans shirt.

"Jack-" He whispered, closing his eyes as the mans hands stroaked his back. He bit his lip and slowly opened his eyes to stare at Jacks neck, noticing how his adams apple jump when he swallowed.

"Hm?" He hummed out, his fingers pressing into the boys back, massaging it softly. Rhys groaned, enjoying the gentle touches way too much.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" He asked in a hushed voice. He started wondering why no one had ran into the room yet, and that when they did and saw this... he glanced over his shoulder at the door.

"Just... stuff..." Jack breathed out, his face suddenly turning a shade of crimson when Rhys shifted. He smirked, leaning back down to the mans ear.

"Stuff? What are you, ten?" He murmured, slightly pressing his hips down, making Jack grunt and close his eyes. "C'mon, tell me what you want to do~"

"I- shit- we should probably go check on the others..." He spoke with a strained voice, his fingers digging into Rhys' back, his thighs squeezing Rhys' hips. Rhys smirked, properly thrusting down towards Jack, who let out a silent moan. "I-I'm serious..."

"Allright~" Rhys chuckled, slowly pushing himself off of the flustered man. He stood up and grabbed his shirts, putting them on. He walked towards the door, pushing it open, Jack right after him.

What they saw shocked them.

Blood was _everywhere_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are very helpful, please do leave them <3


	5. The element of suprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when Rhys and Jack find out who attacked them? And why is Jacks girlfriend there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My summaries suck lmao

"Hello?" Jack called when they exited the room, Rhys silently sneaking ahead of him. They hadn't heard anything, no scream, nothing. There surely wasn't a fight. As they moved along, they found no signs of anyone being there, exept for the blood. "Hello-"

" ** _SUPRISE!_** " Jack was cut off by a roar, and the door they had just passed flew open, grabbing Jack from behind and pulling him in. Rhys turned around in a flash, ready to attack when he recognized all the people in the room. Jack was thrown onto the floor and he wheezed out pointless threats. Rhys giggled.

"You bandits- I have two sirens with me- they will- they will..." His eyes looked up to his kidnappers. His mouth tried to form words but nothing came out, so he closed it. "Uh..."

"Happy Birthday!" Everyone shouted in union. Jack slowly rose to his feet with the help of Rhys' robotic arm wrapped around his shoulder.

"I.. what?" Jack sputtered. Axton groaned, Tim chuckled, Aurelia placed a hand on her hip, and Maya and Tim huffed. Jack furrowed his brows, staring up into the eyes of the woman standing infront of him. He glanced back, looking briefly at Athena who had her arms crossed. He looked back forwards at the other woman.

"It's your birthday, jackass. Don't you remember?" She pushed Rhys aside and wrapped her arm around Jack, leading him to the couch. He was pushed down on it, the woman sitting down next to him. Axton turned on the music and everyone started their own discussions, eating whatever they had while Jack sat in silence and awe.

"Nisha?" He stared at her in disbelief. Rhys approached them, sitting next to Jack, on the other side of him.

"Your girlfriend, right?" Rhys asked, remembering the things Jack had told him. He looked at the hat, it was the same one in his office. He frowned. This woman was bound to die.

"No... she's... what did you call us?" Jack glanced over at Rhys before looking back at Nisha.

"We're a fling, babe." The lady purred, causing Jacks lips to press together in a tight line, and he turned his head away.

" _Right_."

Rhys cringed at how akward it had become. He swallowed, about to say something to break the silence- but Nisha cut him to it.

"C'mon Handsome, move your ass up from the couch. You're goddamn tense as shit, and I know exactly what to do to help you. Into your room, come." Rhys stared in disbelief as Nisha dragged Jack out of the room, and back the way they had come from. He sighed.

"Hey kid." Axton grunted as he flopped down to the couch with him. He mumbled back a greeting back to him, his eyes just staring down at the ground. "A penny for your thoughts,"

"Huh? Oh, nothing... just, uh, wondering what the whole bandit thing was. Where'd they come from and what about all the blood?" Rhys questioned, looking at the blonde in confusion. Axton nodded towards the ECHOcomm on the table.

"We hired them to kill the people in the end room, but we made sure to call the worst bandits out there." Axton explained with a small chuckle. "And the blood, well, just ask Aurelia. She has a lot of tricks up her sleeve."

"Huh, allright..."

 

* * *

 

"Jack, don't take this the wrong way, but are you sick? Is there something wrong?" Nisha asked, sitting up on the bed with a frown on her face, brows knitted. Jack shuffled up from his laying position to look at her better.

"Why?" He swallowed harshly. "What do you mean?" Nisha simply sighed, shaking her head.

"You're clearly not into this." She pointed out, nodding towards his clothed crotch. In embarrasment, he pulled his blanket to cover himself up.

"Well- I-" Jack stuttered, shimmying higher up on the bed. Nisha crossed her arms, her head turning to look at the locked door.

"It's the boy, isn't it? The new one." She asked. "You didn't act like this before he came along." When Jack didn't respond other than turned his head away, Nisha got up. She grabbed her clothes and started pulling them on.

"What're you..." Jack slowly started, letting his voice trail off. Nisha only glanced at him as she pulled on her pants, buttoning them up.

"I ain't gunna force you into anythin' kiddo." She said, slipping on her shirt and hat before walking to the door. "Come join us when you're dressed."

Jack stared after her, fiddling with the blanket he was still holding, a strong blush all across his face and chest. What if she was right? Could he be _crushing_ on the new kid?

 ** _No_**.

There was no way that would be possible. They'd known eachother for such a short time, barely even a day. Sure, he'd been sitting next to the kid, staring at his pretty face the entire time he was out, spoke to him even. Sometimes the kid had woken up too, but he didn't seem to have any memory of that. Jack sighed.

"Better get to the others..." He mumbled, slowly getting up to put on hid clothes, leaving his jacket behind as he headed to the room.

When he entered, the first thing he saw was Rhys.

The kid was sitting awfully close to Axton, and they were laughing and talking, having a god time. Jack frowned, stepping into the middle of the room. Everyone looked at him. And then there was silence.

Until Rhys broke it.

"Well? How'd it go?" He asked, taking Jack by suprise. He opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it again, but nothing came out. He closed his mouth, pressing his lips together, forming a thin line. He shook his head.

"It didn't." Hadn't Nisha told them? Speaking of her, his eyes roamed the room. He couldn't see her anywhere. "Where's Nish?"

"We thought she's still with you." Athena muttered, crossing her arms. Aurelia groaned loudly, and Maya was walking over to him and slapping him in the face.

"Must've left." Timothy mumbled, turning his eyes away from the two. His eyes landed on Wilhelm. He slowly approached the man, sitting next to him, only listening to the fight going on.

"Goddamnit Jack, how do you always fuck up so bad?" Maya hissed at Jack, her tattooed hands bawled into fists as she glared at him. Jack simply frowned deeper.

"I didn't..." Jack mumbled, taking a step back. Maya rolled her eyes.

"Oh sure you didn't. What _did_ you do?" He didn't know how to respond to that. How could he tell her about the whole Rhys situation with the kid right there. His eyes glanced briefly over at the kid, and Maya noticed that. "No way." She looked at the boy. " _No. **Way**_." Her eyes turned back to him. "You like _Rhys_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya'all enjoyed!


	6. To hell with it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How does everyone react to this new knowledge of Jacks affection to Rhys? How does Rhys himself react to it?

"You like _Rhys_." Maya spat out, staring at Jack in shock. The man only gaped at her, hearing Timothy gasp in the background and mumble something while Aurelia snickered.

"Wha- _no!_ " He turned to Rhys, shaking his head, his hands infront of him, eyes wide. The kid simply cocked a brow. "I have _no_ _idea_ what shes talking about-"

"Hey, it's all cool." Rhys interrupted him, walking over to him from the couch. He patted Jack on the shoulder before walking out. No one went after him, but everyone stared as he left. Then all eyes were on Jack again.

"I-I'm not into men!" Jack yelled suddenly, taking everyone by suprise. There was silence at first, but it was broken by laughter.

"Oh _please_ , you hit on everything attractive that walks on two legs!" Athena said in an amused voice, though she didn't have any expression on her face.

"That is true. One day, I was just spending time with Timothy, and he shows up and flirted with us both. Pretty sure I've seen him flirt with Wilhelm too." Aurelia said with a chuckle, crossing her arms over her chest as she sat down on a chair nearby.

"And you spend a hella lot of time with Rhys anyways. Whats up with that?" Maya asked, turning Jacks attention back to her. Jack sputtered, opening and closing his mouth a few times before letting out a fustrated groan and storming out of the room. He could hear faint laughter coming from the room, but he didn't care. He was too deep in thought.

So deep actually, that when he came to his own room, he didn't notice that there was someone else in there, and locked the door. He sighed deeply, leaning his forehead against the door. With a groan, he moved to pull off his shirt, and threw it behind himself, turning around to walk to his bed at the same time.

"Well _hello_ there." Jack yelped in suprise, his eyes turning to the direction of the voice. He looked at Rhys, who was standing at the door of the bathroom, with only a towel around his waist. His hair hung on his face, and water was dripping onto the floor. Jack took a step back.

"Wha-what-" He sputtered. Rhys just  chuckled, walking over to the bed to grab his clothes- well, Jacks clothes that he'd taken from the closet and found to be... almost fitting.

"Turn around for a sec, willya." Rhys said, and Jack was quick to do as told. He heard the noice of the towel falling to the floor and felt his face start to flush slightly. After a short while, Rhys collapsed on the bed with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm done." Jack made no sign to move.

"A-allright." He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down. Rhys cocked a brow at him.

"What are you doing?" He sat up, about to get off the bed when the man turned quickly on his heel and shook his head.

"N-nothing!" Jack sputtered, letting out an akward, dry laugh as he walked towards the bed. He tried to akwardly hide his chest with his shirt that he'd picked up from the floor, pressing the yellow sweater to his body. Rhys tried to not laugh at that.

"Are you shy?" He asked with a laugh, his eyebrows up all the way on his forehead as he eyes the slightly older man. Jack let out a huff.

"Me? Shy? Pfft, _no_." He dropped the shirt down. "Just didn't want to make you uncomfortable from seeing my _amazing_ body." Jack puffed out his chest, sucking in his stomach just slightly as he showed off his muscles. Rhys frowned.

"...right." Standing up from the bed, Rhys patted Jack on the shoulder with a gentle smile. "Well mr. 'I have a great bod' I'll go eat something now. You have fun here. By yourself."

"Wha-" Jack watched with a frown as Rhys walkes out of the room with his clothes on, that were still too big for him, and left Jack all alone. He looked down at the towel on the floor and picked it up. "Could clean after his mess, goddamn kid." Jack muttered.

Jack had returned to the others a little after Rhys, and mostly ingored everyones comments. He sideeyed the kid whenever he was around Axton. Jack did not trust that guy with Rhys. After he finished eating, he returned to his room again, thinking about taking a shower. He didn't even get to take off his shirt when the door opened and Rhys stepped in. He shot a glare at the boy, who returned it as a confused pout.

"What?"

"I was about to shower." Jack muttered, tugging at his shirt in frustration. Rhys raised his brows and crossed his arms.

"And?" Jack rolled his eyes so hard he was pretty sure they would fall out. He placed his hands on his hips.

"Could you leave?" He nodded towards the door, frowning when Rhys groaned and walked past him.

"I'm not gonna come into the damn bathroom, just go." The kid said in an annoyed tone as he flopped down onto the bed, pulling out his ECHO-net on his arm. Jack pouted, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door after him. A few seconds later he returned to grab a towel and went back in, first shooting a glare at Rhys and locked the door after him.

He made sure to be quick, simply washing himself with water before stepping out again and drying himself. He put on his clothes and entered the room Rhys was in, and immidiatley the kid started judging him.

"You... should really wash those. Please. My clothes are in there too, right now. You probably _stink_." Rhys turned up his nose with a frown, holding back a small laugh when Jack groaned, grabbed new clothes and entered the bathroom. He could hear the older man cursing as he threw his clothes in the machine, and he heard him whine to himself. Rhys chuckled. If someone would of told him that this would happen to him someday, he would have never believed them. But now that it was?

Well he still didn't really believe it.

"Happy now?" Jack interrupted his train of thought as he stepped into the room wearing a simple tank top with some shorts. Rhys chuckled.

"Very." He said with a grin. Jack just rolled his eyes, closing the door behind him. He flopped onto the bed, next to Rhys, silently observing him. "What now?"

"Nothing. Just, yknow. Wondering." Rhys cocked a brow at him and leaned down where the older man was laying. Jack furrowed his brows at him, momenteraly glancing somewhere else.

"Wondering what?" That made Jack smirk.

"If I figured out a way to shut you up."

"Wha-" Rhys was cut off by a pair of lips on his own. What the hell? Why was Jack kissing him? He didn't pull away though, only leaned closer to the touch. When Jack pulled back, he only stared in awe at the man that was supposedly going to be his boss in the future.

"Guess it worked, huh."

"Oh." With that, Jack smirked and turned his back on Rhys while the cybernetic man questioned his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments are appriciated!


	7. Property

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Axton have a disagreement. What does that lead to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So theres alot of arguing in this chapter, sorry~
> 
> And if theres anything weird at any point, just tell me! Im very tired while writing this so I wouldnt be suprised if there indeed is something weird. And sorry for not updating in such a long time??? Gosh i feel terrible ♡ i love you all, dont worry, i have definitely not abandoned this fic! Stay awesome ya'all♡♡

After the kiss, nothing else had really happened. Sure, there was a lot of tension between them, but was there ever a time where there wasn't?

They had left Concordia the day after, and were on their way to find a war AI to put into battle robots, or something. Rhyd hadn't been sure what they'd meant. A few days passed before they had found one. She named herself Felicity.

"It means happiness," she had told Rhys as they were chatting about different things. "What does your name mean, Reese?"

" _Rhys_ , and uh, I don't actually know." He gave an akward chuckle as he watched Jack and Maya argue over how to build the new tent they'd bought. "What do you think of Jack, Felicity?"

"He seems kind of odd, but he's alright, I suppose. Why?" Rhys sighed, looking down at the ECHO.

"Just asking..." he muttered.

"What do you think of him?" To say Rhys wasn't expecting that question would be a lie. He frowned slightly.

"He used to be my hero." He looked at Jack again, who was staring at Maya with his hands on his hips and a pout on his face. Maya was just grinning as she told Wilhelm what to do. "Then... he betrayed me. We got into a huge fight, and in the end... he tried to kill me. But... I killed him. Then I find myself here and, god, it's all so confusing... I miss my friends but I also... really like it here. With Jack. You know?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Felicity said nonchalantly. Rhys just chuckled.

"Makes sense." With that, he got up and walked around the fire Timothy was trying to light and over to Jack, wrapping his arm around him. He looked at the man for a moment. "You _are_ Jack, right?" He glanced at Timothy. "Or is that..." Jack stared at him with a raised brow and a sneer on his face. Rhys chuckled, "I'm joking. I could tell _this_ handsome face apart from _that_ handsome face any day." He flicked Jacks nose with his finger before akwardly leaning in and pressing a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Ah," Jack just stared off into the distance, face slowly heating up. He swallowed and opened his mouth to say something-

"Hey." Axton rudely interrupted them. "I didn't find anything that seemed too edible but I found a few bandits and they had a minifridge with them-" he dropped the fridge to the ground next to the fire place, "along with a bag with a few canned soups." He placed said bag with canned soups ontop of the fridge before pushing Timothy aside to light the fire. The bodydouble let out an akward laugh before walking away grumpily, soon followed by Aurelia.

Meanwhile, Rhys had pulled away from Jack to go check out the insides of the fridge. There was a few steaks in it, and the rest was filled with alcohol. He closed the door and moved to the bag, inspecting the cans curiously.

"Hey, these aren't even old! Nice work, Ax!" Rhys grinned up at the blonde before standing up and dusting his clothes. He smiled to himself before looking over at Jack who was glaring at Axton. Rhys cocked a brow, letting his smile fall. When Jack noticed him, he just looked back at the tent that was almost done already.

"I _did_ get shot at a few times, though. Rhys wouldcha mind helpin' me with this?" He pulled at his bullet vest, and Rhys akwardly made his way over to the soldier.

"Why specifically _Rhys_?" Jack suddenly snapped. "There's _other_ people who could be _much_ better at that than Rhys. So why did ya pick _him_?!" He had stomped over to the two, standing taller than Axton as he glared down at him.

"Isn't that _obvious_?" The soldier snarled back. "He's hot, he's new, he's fresh, obviously I'm going to flirt with him." Axton stepped closer to Jack and squinted at him. "Just like _you_."

"Excuse me? _Unlike_ you, I'm not planning on using him for one night like he'd be some _whore_ ," at this point, everyone was staring at them, "I'm planning on making him rule beside me. Rule Hyperion. And Helios. If that's what he wants, _ofcourse_. I prefer having peoples consent, unlike _somebody_ else-"

"Are you hinting that I'm a rapist?!" Axton pushed at his chest, rage boiling in his stomach. " _I'm_ not the one who was _touching_ Rhys while he was _**unconscious**_!"

"I wasn't _touching_ him! I was checking him for any _injuries_!" Jack argued back, pushing Axton the same way he had pushed him.

"Why were _you_ doing it when there are _others_ that could've done it?" Jack bit his tongue as he scrunched up his nose.

"He was in _my_ bed, _I_ was the closest to him! You and I both know that I'm completely capable of checking others for injuries; I checked _you_ when you came back from a mission and passed out on the ground before me!" Jack shouted, hand flying to his hip as he pulled out his gun, Axton repeating his action.

"Stop it!" Came a female voice from their Echo's. They all looked down at the devices. "Violence is never the answer. You're on the same team. Why don't you ask Reese what he thinks?" Felicity questioned, and everyone looked over at Rhys, who had backed up several feet away from the two men.

" _Well_ , Rhys?" Axton sneered at him.

"Yeah, well, Rhysie?" Jack repeated, but in a much nicer and calmer way. Axton shot a glare at him. Rhys only opened his mouth to speak. He stood there gaping like an idiot for a moment before he spoke.

"I- I can't do this right now," he sputtered before running off into the darkness. Maya groaned and ran after him, but not before glaring at the two idiots by the fire.

"Great work, morons." Wilhelm shook his head as he straightened himself up, finished with the tent. Timothy and Aurelia sat on a log nearby, Aurelias arm wrapped around Timothy.

Axton groaned.

"You do know this is all your fault, right?" He muttered to Jack before he walked over to the minifridge and grabbed a drink, and threw one to Jack.

Jack sighed, catching the drink in his hand.

"Shut up."

Meanwhile, Rhys was leaning against a big rock, shaking. Maya was at his side, rubbing his back gently. "Are you alright?" Rhys just shook his head.

"I just... what the hell?" He whimpered. Maya just pulled him closer. "I don't know what to say... they were... _fighting_. Over _me_. It freaks me out, I dont know how to feel about that..."

"Try to not think about it-" Maya started, but Rhys just shoved her away.

"Kind of hard **not** to! They- they pulled their guns out, for chrissake!" He cried out to her, and she just frowned. "I'm used to violence, but... not like this!"

"Look, kid, I understand-"

" _Stop_ calling me a kid, please. I'm _older_ than you." Rhys muttered. Maya rolled her eyes.

"Look, _Rhys_ , I understand you're freaked out by this now, but you're going to have to get over it. We need to return to camp, it's not safe here." She placed a hand on her shoulder. He stared at it for a bit before sighing.

"I guess you're right. Lets go back..." he mumbled, rubbing his arm akwardly. They slowly started walking back to the camp, where everyone seemed pretty ready to sleep. They had decided that Rhys, Maya, Timothy and Jack were going to sleep inside of the tent, while Axton, Wilhelm and Aurelia were going to sleep outside.

Rhys decided he wanted to sleep between Timothy and Jack, _well_ , his inner fanboy decided that, but after thinking about it for a moment, he decided he wanted to sleep between Maya and Jack instead.

After they all ate a little bit of canned food that Axton had found, they went to sleep, and suprisingly, Rhys fell asleep quite quickly, unlike Jack, whose head was filled with different thoughts. When he turned onto his side and wrapped an unsure arm around Rhys, he found it slapped away by Maya. But as Rhys wormed his way flush with Jacks chest, the older was forced to wrap his arm around Rhys to prevent it from being clamped between their bodies. Maya had just glared at him for a while before closing her eyes.

Jack found that with Rhys pressed against him, he fell asleep much easier. His arms tightened around the kid, a smile creeping onto his face as he slept.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also love your comments, please do leave them <3 they help me write :D


	8. Something akin to a suprise

When Rhys woke up, he found himself wrapped in strong arms. His first reaction was to jump back, pull away from the body. That resulted in two grunts from both infront of him and behind him. He blinked his eyes open and met the suprised look of a heterocromatic eyepair, and gave an award smile to the man before turning slightly and glancing back at Maya who had already turned her back at Rhys. He shrugged and looked back at Jack, who was sitting up already. Rhys noticed that the place next to him was empty, and he also recognised that Jacks blanket was between them, even though he had it around himself... Rhys' eyes flickered up to look at Jack. He saw the nervous look on his face and the freckles littered on his skin.

"Timothy?" The man looked at him nervously and cracked a smile. "Where's Ja-" he was cut off my a roar from outside the tent, " _ah_ ," with a sigh, Rhys slowly got up, stretching slightly as he pushed Timothy to the side to climb out of the tent, and his O2 kit activated. He glanced at the oxygen device in confusion. "Why... is..." his eyes flickered to the machine in the middle of the camp, a confused look spreading across his face as he realised it wasn't on. He turned towards Jack, eyebrows furrowing as he watched the man holding his left wrist in his right hand, staring at the palm with rage.

"He smacked it." Rhys looked at Axton who was standing now next to him, looking at Jack with a smirk. Rhys made a confused sound. "He got a shock from it," Axton clarified. Jack groaned out loud, glancing over at them, "he also broke it."

"Did _not_." Jack muttered, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets as he glared at the two.

"Jack, you are like a big child." Aurelia sniggered as she walked past the man, patting him briefly on the shoulder. She went over to help Maya and Timothy pack all their things. Rhys just chuckled as he crossed his arms.

"You bastard, stop it or I'll rip ya clean off," Jack snarled at his hand, catching Rhys' undivided attention. The cyberarmed man cocked a brow at the future CEO.

"Jack, stop threatening your arm." He smirked at the slightly older man who just rolled his eyes, turning himself to face Rhys.

"I'm not _threatening_ , cupcake, I'm just..." he shook his hand while shooting a glare at it, " _hurts_." Rhys shook his head with a soft smile.

"You'll get over it," Rhys told him, patting him gently on the shoulder. He huffed, letting his hand fall to his side, "you're a big boy after all, aren't you?" Axton snorted loudly at that, grinning from ear to ear as Jack just glared at the two with a huff.

"Shut up." He muttered as he turned his back at the others, a frown on his face as he stuffed his hands back into his pockets. Rhys didn't have the right to treat him like trash. He glanced over his shoulder, and his annoyance only grew as he saw Axton and Rhys hanging out. But then something else caught his attention and his eyes widened, " **Scavs**!"

" _Shit_!" Acton quickly activated his turrets as he pulled grabbed the closest gun to himself, shoving a machine gun in to Rhys' chest. The taller man stumbled in confusion for a moment before he lifted the gun up properly. He glanced to his right to find a... a big, red, kind of see through Jack standing next to him. He felt a bullet hit him in his time of confusion and he was sent flying back with a pained yell. He grasped his side in pain as he felt his siren powers activating. He felt a hand on his shoulders, his eyes flying open as he looked up at Jack, who was trying to get him to stand up. He couldn't hear what the man was saying, he could only see the movement of his lips.

"N-no, get away from me," he wheezed, rolling over onto his chest as he slowly pushed himself up. He was sweating hard once he was standing on his two, shaky legs, and his skin was burning. He started pulling at his shirt, literally tearing it off in mere seconds.

He heard a few gasps from the others that were by his side, and he could sense them stepping away. He hissed in pain and straightened up, his eyes scanning the area around them.

"We're surrounded. Scavs and Lost Legion." He muttered, feeling a new feeling bubble up in his chest, a grin growing on his face. "Let's slaughter these motherfuckers," before anyone could even react, Rhys found himself basically running into the enemy's arms, bullets piercing his skin without even damaging him as he phase walked through the row of enemies, wrapping a bubble around a few as he lifted them into the air, soon enough joined by Maya, who knew exactly what he was doing.

They locked eyes for a moment, and she flashed him a proud smile. He grinned, eyes moving back to the floating enemies while scavs around him fell to the ground from bullets and lazers. He laughed, the enemies in the bubbles exploding into tiny pieces. It didn't take long for them to get rid of the surrounding enemies. When he was done, Rhys felt... _really_ exhausted. He wiped his forehead, his knees giving under as he fell to the ground, Jack soon by his side.

"Rhys, _shit_ , are ya okay?" He pulled Rhys up to his lap, checking him over for any bullets or other wounds, but there was nothing. Nothing at all. His brows furrowed and he moved his eyes back to the kids face.

"I'm _magical_ ," he chuckled as he tried to roll off of Jacks lap, only to be pulled closer to the man, "Hey, I'm **_fine_** , let me go already," Rhys' brows furrowed as he lazily looked up at Jack, "I'm just tired."

"You just woke up, like right before the attack!" Jack accused, annoyance growing in his voice, his grip on Rhys tightening.

"Yeah, well incase you didn't notice, I just went all siren crazy or whatever!" Rhys argued back, pushing back at Jack as he still tried to get off his lap, but Jack just pulled him closer witha sneer.

"So did Maya but look at her, she's fine!" Jack snarled, one hand leaving Rhys as he pointed at Maya, who just raised a brow at them.

"Don't compare me to her," Rhys spat with a shove to Jacks chest as he pushed himself away from his lap and sat up on his knees, "she's more used to these kinds of things, christ sake, she's a Vault hunter!" With that, Rhys grabbed Axtons, who just happened to be the closest to him, sleeve and pulled himself up, leaning on the soldier as he glared at Jack. "Lets get to that train station, shall we?"

 


	9. Catch the train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If just Helios had more time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've just been writing a hella lot updates for this fic lately so Imma post two today! Yay

The walk to the train station was quite silent, only one speaking was Felicity. Rhys felt bad for her, she seemed like such a nice person, well, AI, and he didn't think she should be made into a war bot. When they got to  the train station, all they had to do was call the train to them, and once it arrived, they simply got on.

"Weird," Aurelia muttered as she sat down on one of the seats, "it's been awfully quiet today after the whole incident in the morning, don't you think?" She looked over at Timothy and Wilhelm, and they both just agreed with her. She frowned and shrugged, looking out of the window, noticing they were nearing their stop, though that wasn't the only thing she noticed. "Well, not anymore," she let out a chuckle as he stood up, stepping to the door, holding her gun in hands as she waited for the train to stop.

"What do you mea- ohh," Rhys stared out of the window at the scavs that they were nearing with the train. Soon enough the doors slid open, and they had to pretty much repeat what happened in the morning, except this time there were way less enemies, and they were much weaker, thus easier to defeat. From there, they simply had to plug Felicity into the system.

She helped them find the best route into the old, tork infested facility, that just happened to also be habited by scavs, but that was all easy to handle. Once they got actually inside the facility, things became harder, there were more badasses and there were robots and powersuits controlled by Lost Legion, which they had to defeat if they wanted to get inside. Turns out they had trapped a Hyperion scientist in there too, his name was Gladstone, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy.

Turned out that Gladstone had just the perfect war bot that they had been looking for. A constructor.

Well, a prototype. Still.

They collected everything they needed so they could actually build it, and as they were almost done, Felicity started having doubts. "But- I-I don't like killing," she had told them, but Jack had just sighed and closed his eyes.

"Neither do I, pumpkin. But I gotta kill so my friends and family don't die." After that, Jack hadn't spoken much before they were installing Felicity into the bot itself. She didn't like it at all, especially as she rampaged through the hallways, stepping on people, killing them in cold blood. They entered the last room in the building, where Jack explained that they would need to delete her personality to make her into a proper battle bot. But, obvioulsy, she did not like that idea at all, and thus she had attacked.

It was the hardest fight Rhys had ever been in, and so he spent most of it hiding from Felicity and her smaller bots, while the others took her down while she fought back using her lasers, body slams and many other kinds of attacks, including the making of Dahl Bots that were the only things that Rhys sometimes had to shoot when they found their way over to him. But she was also his friend, which made it all even worse. He didn't want her to get hurt.

If only Helios had more time.

He could hear her screams as they lowered her down into the machine, but she soon shut up as her personality was destroyed. No one was proud of this kill.

"Rhys, hey, get up, we have to continue. Felicity is gone now, and we have to get over it, okay?" Axtons hand was on his shoulder, rubbing the flesh gently. He was only wearing his vest due to breaking his other shirt, and his jacket had been nowhere to be seen. He nodded slowly as he stood up, looking around himself, seeing the yellow Loader bots walking around the room.

"You got a brain and now you've got the brawn. It's go time." Jack laughed, crossing his arms as he looked at them.

They returned to Concordia.

Rhys wasn't able to concentrate, so he had decided to take a walk around the city, when he stumbled into a mechanic shop. His eyes landed on a woman that he was very familiar with.

"Janey?" He blurted as he stepped into the room. The woman looked up at him and smiled.

"Oh, well 'ello there stranger! Who are you? How can I help ya?" Rhys shook his head as a smile creeped up on his face.

"Nothing, I'm just happy to see you," he explained, realising what he had just said when he noticed the confusion on Janeys face. "Uh, nevermind. I better get going. Have a good day and uh, say hi to Athena," biting his lip, he added "and Scooter," he was still alive in this universe. He was about to step out before he leaned back to look into the room, "from Rhys," he smiled and walked off, leaving Athena as confused as ever, wondering who the hell that weird guy was. She shrugged and just assumed he was another crazy person, the city had many of those.

"Ah, Rhysie, I was just thinking about you!" Jack said with a grin the moment he stepped out of the stop, and he cocked a brow. "Alright, here we go, everybody. The jamming signal's down, we've got a robot army..."

"Uh, okay?" Jack threw his arm around Rhys as they made their way towards the fast travel, where the rest of the group was wating. Lilith, with her boyfriend, was also there.

" _Soo_ , it's time to get back to Helios and turn off that death-laser," he said happily, eyes traveling up to look at the space station that was currently under attack. That didn't stop the smile from spreading onto his face. " _And_ if you're good, I'll letcha meet someone **very** special," Jack winked at him before letting go. He walked over to the fast travel and tapped in the codes. "Let's go, I think Athena might already be there," he murmured, and off he went, the group soon following after. Rhys was the last to go.

He landed on the ground harshly, next to Axtons boot. He glanced up at the man who helped him up, and they both looked around in confusion.

"We got split up, didn't we..." Rhys muttered, dusting his clothes before straightening up. He found his ECHO ringing nearby on the ground and fished down to answer it. "Jack-"

"Crap. Looks like the fast travel split us all up. Doesn't change the plan, though: get to the Eye of Helios command center, shut the laser down _**WITHOUT**_ damaging it, save the moon, and be hailed as a hero forever. Sound good? Course it does." Everyone agreed with him and the call was off.

Rhys sighed, looking over at Axton, "I know the way, follow me."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also there's gonna be more lines that are straight from the game in the few following chapters, just sayin :^)


	10. We're home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home sweet home, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And heres that second update ;D yay~

"Jamming signal or no, this station is **_MINE_** , Vault Hunters!" Rhys cringed as the voice of Zarpedon came through his Echo, the message sinking in first after the first reaction to her voice. Soon enough, Jacks loud groan was heard at the other end.

" _So_ , she's locked the path, and we can't get to the Eye of Helios. But we shut down the jamming signal, _I_ _don't_ \- alright, _whatever_ , just get back to my office. Maybe we can lower the defenses from there." Jack explained into the Echo before closing the call. Rhys sighed.

And that's how they got into their current situation. A snow storm and a tornado in the middle of Helios, Lost Legion attacking like there was no tomorrow. Everything was just great.

"Where the hell did- **_FUCK_**!" Axton felt a harsh grip grab him from behind him and throw him over the edge and into the fake tornado, created by the damned idiotic claptrap, sending him flying to the other side of the room, smacking into the wall. He hissed in pain as he pulled himself up, pointing his gun at the person and started firing it, only to realise after a moment that Rhys had already killed whoever it was and was currently busy with trying to get even a small glimpse of the cloaked, invisible soldiers so he could explode them into tiny shreds of blood and gore. Axton turned his attention away from Rhys and back into the battle, while the claptrap they had asked to open the door finally got the tornado off, was trying to get access to the elevator that took them to Jacks office was still struggling with the lock when it suddenly started speaking, "I think I got it! Somebody use the scanner, please!" With a grunt, Rhys punched the scanner, only to have it beep at him.

" _Access denied. Scans reveal subject is a cat wearing a birthday cap_." Furrowing his brows, Rhys glared daggers at claptrap.

"Whoopsie-daisy! I may have messed up the scanner. Give me a little bit more time!" Rhys muttered angrily under his breath before returning to the battle, noticing Axton crouched on the ground and quickly jumped over to him, reviving him with oxygen. "Alright, activate the scanner! I've probably got it right this time!" The robot chirped after a long while, and once again, more suspiciously though, Rhys pressed the button, and, what a suprise, it didn't open.

" _Access denied. Scans reveal subject is a racist hot dog_."

"Darn! I was sure the racist hot dog workaround would do it! Oh well -- time to try again!"

"HOW ARE YOU THIS STUPID?!" Rhys yelled at the claptrap, eyes catching a group of Lost Legion soldiers, " **GAH**! JUST TRY TO DO YOUR--" he threw a grenade at some of the troops running towards him and jumped into safety, "JOB! _Ax_! Watch out- _**GRENADE**_!" Rhys' voice boomed through the area, and he scanned the ground around him, eyes landing on the grenade right next to him, jumping out of the way on the last second, rolling into safety. He yelled a thanks back to Rhys who just smirked in his direction. "I was the one who threw it!"

" _Door interface unlocked. Please integrate with terminal to open door_." Rhys looked at the claptrap, his smirk still apparent and raised a brow.

"Oh gee, I dunno about that. Integration can be kind of dangerous-" it started but then Rhys pointed his gun at it and it quickly tended to the silent order. It got badly electrocuted and probably died, but no one cared. Rhys pressed the button to the doors and finally, they slid open.

Axton stepped in first, checking for any traps. Rhys followed him into the elevator, leaning against the doors after they closed. Axton leaned on the wall on the other side, smirking at Rhys, who just cocked a brow at hom before straightening up. "Is there something on my face?"

"No, well- _yeah_ , blood, but that's not why I'm staring. I'm staring because I think you- **gah**!" The doors that Axton had thought were a solid wall slid open behind him and he fell to the ground, causing Rhys to snort and shake his head as he walked over to him and helped him to his feet. He pulled out his Echo and walked past Axton.

"I'm gonna call Jack and tell him we're here-" he gasped when he was suddenly thrown against the closest wall, Axton boxing him in. His breath hitched, eyes flickering between Axtons lips, eyes, and the Echo that was open on Jacks contact. He swallowed, pressing the button as he tried to push himself against the wall, further away from Axton.

The man didn't get the hint though, and only moved closer, his body pinning Rhys to the wall. They shared the same breath for a moment before-

"Hey, _Rhys_? You in my office already?" Rhys quickly pulled the device up to his face as Axton got dangerously close to kissing him.

"U-uh, _yeah_ , yeah we are, Jack. I'll... activate the Fast travel." He stuttered, face red as he held the Echo right in front of his face, only his eyes visible to Axton, who glared at the Echo for a moment before stepping away, face returning to a neutral look. Rhys frowned and pulled the Echo away from his face and tucked it back into his pocket, moving to the Fast travel as he activated it, informing everyone else about the activation aswell. Soln enough, they were all in the hallway to Jacks office. Jack was the last to come, and he stretched his arms, a smirk on his face as he groaned, "finally home again."

"You call your office home?" Jack shot a grin at Axton and winked at him before starting his stroll towards the actual office, Rhys following him, walking right beside him. Athena eyed them suspiciously, not saying a single thing. Timothy was the only one who had greeted her.

"Looks a lot different than last time I was here," Rhys pointed out, eyes moving up to the Tassiter posters. Jack furrowed his brows, almost asking when he'd been there, before remembering. "It was all... _destroyed_. And before that, it was bigger. Filled with your statues. And it had you as a hologram, trying to kill me." The amusement from his voice quickly drained towards the end and he turned his head to stare at the wall away from Jack, who was frowning as he looked at Rhys.

"Look, kiddo, whatever I do in the future, I'm... I'm sorry." He wrapped an arm around Rhys gently as the doors infront of them slid open, letting them into Jacks office. Rhys smiled softly. He never wanted to leave this place.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments ! I love reading them, no matter really what you say unless its something negative, unless its helpful. Am i rambling? I think i am. Sorry


	11. Inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as i said, theres gonna be lines from the actual game for quite a few chapters. I really hope you all dont mind

Sitting down onto his chair, Jack groaned. "For now, I need you to take that claptrap you found and plug him into the security terminal," having his hand he rolled his eyes, "he can lower the defenses leading to the Eye of Helios laser." Axton and Rhys shared an awkward glance.

"Uh, yeah, it's **dead**." Axton muttered, crossing his arms as he eyed the bookshelves. He heard Jack sit straighter and then he heard his palms slam against the desk.

"Are you _KIDDING_ me?! I swear to God, when _I_ become CEO I am going to destroy every last one of those friggin' things!" He snapped, surprising everyone in the room with his freak out. "Now how are we gonna lower the damn defenses?"

The Echo on the table lit up, automatically connecting to the call from Gladstone. "Jack?! My team and I need your help bruv, we're bloody trapped!"

"Sorry, Gladstone, but I..." Jacks eyes lit up and he grinned down at his Echo, "--just had an idea. Vault Hunters, get to R&D and rescue Gladstone's team. They'll be able to hack into the system!" Jack chuckled as he leaned back again, a smirk on his face, eyes lidded, "God, I'm smart." He grinned up at the others, and everyone just simultaneously groaned in annoyance before starting to head back to the mission. Rhys was about to turn away too, but Jack grabbed him gently by the wrist and he turned around to look at him, but Jack didn't meet his eyes. He stared at the others as they left, waiting until the doors closed behind them before he turned to look at Rhys. "I'm not risking you down there. From now on, you're not gonna leave my sight."

Rhys stared at him, stunned for a moment before letting a soft smile onto his face, "Okay, handsome. Whatever you want." He sat down onto Jacks desk, looking at the mess on it. Only one thing was the same, "Angel's pictute is still there- **er** , already, I suppose." Jack looked down from Rhys to the framed picture and slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I... yeah." He sighed, leaning forwards to stroke his fingers against the frame. "You never answered my question, y'know."

"What question?" Rhys looked at him in confusion, eyebrow cocked as he leaned back with a growing frown.

"How's Angel in your time?" He felt his blood run cold at the question, not knowing how to answer that, he just bit his lip.

Rhys looked away from Jack at Elpis with a shake of his head, "I can't answer that."

"Why the hell not-" Jack snapped, but Rhys cut him off.

"Look, I don't know!" He swiftly lied. It was the easiest choise, it wouldn't hurt him in the future. Or the past, he supposes. Jack stared at him in disbelief before shrugging. He had no option but to believe him.

They spent- well Jack spent- the rest of the day watching the Vault Hunters run around Helios through the cameras, Jack laughing at them whenever they didn't succeed at something. Sometimes Jack told them some interesting facts, none of it was anything Rhys didn't know about. At one point Zarpedon had called, and Jack had called her something else, resulting in her telling them her whole name.

_Tungsteena Zarpedon._

They had laughed about that almost the entire evening.

At one point, Tassiter called, and Jack and no choice but to pick it up. "John." Rhys could practically see Jack cringing on the inside but instead he just faked a smile and a happy voice.

"Mister Tassiter, we've retaken a section of Helios. We're only steps away from taking back the laser and saving Pandora. How did we succeed, you wonder. Well, that's because I'm awesome." At the end, there was a genuine smirk on Jacks face, and Rhys just shook his head and lifted his legs up to Jacks lap to inch him slightly closer to himself.

Tassiter groaned at the other end, "Yeah. Great. I'm calling to tell you that... the board has decided to reverse your termination. You-" he groaned again, "have their support.

Jack punched the air and let out a laugh. " **Alright**! Pleasure to be working with you again, **_ASSHOLE_**." Rhys flinched slightly at the change of Jacks demeanour. "Now why don't you go pour yourself a big tall glass of _I-told-you-so_ and **SUCK IT**!" He laughed loudly as he threw the Echo across the room as he leaned back. " _So_ ," Jack mused, placing a hand on his chest, "I think we both deserve a little something special, eh?"

"What do you mean?" Rhys questioned with a tilt of his head, boot slowly rubbing back and forth on Jacks thigh. The mans eyes flickered down at it before looking back at Rhys with a wicked grin.

"Who is the most annoying person you can think of who lives on Helios? We can make 'em do stupid shit for us. Whaddya say?" He wriggled closer to Rhys, causing his boot slide higher up Jacks thigh while the slightly older man just kept smirking.

"Ah, _hm_." Rhys nibbled slightly on his lower lip before a name popped up into his head. "Vas- Wallethead."

"W-Wallethead?!" Jack broke into rumbling laughter, hands slapping down on Rhys' leg as tears rolled down his cheeks from laughing so much. "G-God, that's-- _priceless_!" Rhys smirked at him and crossed his arms. "Alright, let me just- uh, can I borrow your Echo? Mines... over there." Jack nodded in the direction of the shattered device with an embarrassed grin.

"Weirdo. _Here_ \-- and don't break this one," he handed over his Echo with a chuckle and Jack just smiled at him before dialing Vasquez.

"Heh- _heey_ Hugo, my man," Rhys felt his lips twitch down slightly at that, but kept a smile on his face either way, "would ya mind coming up here real quick? Bring some--" he looked up at Rhys again, who just shrugged, "ah, champagne, along with two glasses. Chop chop." He closed the call and put the Echo on the table. "Didn't even let him speak." He said with a snicker.

"Y'know, Jack, Hyperion is in the middle of a war right now. How do you think he's going to-" the doors in the office slid open and his eyes flickered to the person standing in the doorway, "that was... _really_ quick. What the hell?" Vasquez leaned on his knees, panting loudly, two glasses !nd an expensive bottle of champagne in his hand and a gun in the other. He had blood splattered all over his clothes and he was bald. Rhys snorted. Loudly.

"Hey, wallethead." Rhys said with a snicker and Hugo looked up at them, a frown spreading in his face.

"Uh, Jack? Who..." his eyes flickered between the two in confusion, and Rhys had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing.

"Thanks Hugo, bring those here, then ya can leave again." Awkwardly, Hugo made his way over to them and placed the things on the table, stuffing his gun into its holster in confusion. "Actually, I wanna know how ya got here so fast."

"I- I found a Dahl device, it's... basically the same as Hyperion fast travel but it was hacked so..." he scratched the back of his head, "I used it to travel to the store and then steal champagne and came up here...?" Jack chuckled as he crossed his arms.

"Kay, cool story, get out. And send that teleportation device ya got to me," he winked and leaned back, hand coming down to rest on Rhys' boot, only so he could get Vasquez's attention to the fact that Rhys had his leg on Jacks thigh. The man clenched his jaw as he backed out before he broke into a run, dashing past the doors that quickly slammed close after him from a press of a button. Jack smirked, eyeing the champagne, "These are all bloody but..." he lifted the bottle from the table and popped it open, pouring some in both glasses, "frankly, I don't really mind. Do you?"

"N... no." Rhys stuttered, looking away from Jack for a moment before inhaling sharply and looking back at him, meeting his sharp gaze. "No, I don't mind."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have like 20 chapters written ffs


	12. Pull me in, throw me out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope im posting the right chapter rn. Im v tired and im not completely sure

The champagne was great, they had a great time, except for the few times Jack raged or complained into the Echo, helping his workers in getting through Helios, blah blah, yadda yadda. Rhys didn't really pay attention, the champagne was strong and he had had more than a few glasses of it already. He laughed at everything that Jack said, at one point sat on his lap, laid on it and returned to restlng his leg on his thigh.

"Rhys?" Jack placed his hand on Rhys' knee and shook it gently, getting Rhys' attention back to himself. The younger gave him a loopsided smile. "You shouldn't be getting drunk. We might be forced into battle at almost any time here. I--" his sentence was cut off by the sound of Rhys' Echo ringing. It was answered automatically.

"Hey Jack, all the scientists are rescued, we can help you get to the Eye laser. We'll be heading there now," Gladstone explained quickly. Jack frowned, crossing his arms suspiciously. He pushed himself away from Rhys, sending a small glare in his direction.

"Gladstone, why does Zarpedon still have control over Helios's defenses anyway? We shut down the jamming signal on Elpis. We shouldn't need _you_ to lower the shields."

"Well, there's a possibility that Zarpedon could have a weaker signal or..." Gladstone coughed nervously as he listed the possibilities, "she could possibly even have another mole on Helios, like the Meriff. Or she just manually rewired the security system-"

"Waitwaitwait-" Jack sputtered, cutting up his sentence, "there might be _another_ traitor on Helios?" He snarled, teeth grinding together as he leaned back in his chair, ending the call. "Mmmm... this is just great, isn't it?" He looked up at Rhys and rolled his eyes, pressing a button on his armrest. The left side bookshelves moved aside and opened up a door. Jack nodded towards it. "Go take a nap. And drink some water. I'll come getcha when we're done." With a shrug, Rhys got off the table and made his way somehow down the small steps and all the way to the room, finding a big bed and a working table inside, and a door that probably led to the bathroom. He collapsed onto the bed with a groan.

Meanwhile, Jack kept bugging Timothy about the mission until the double snarled at him that the job was done. Jack thanked him and told them to come up, at the same moment as he put the Echo, the doors to his office slid open and in stepped Lilith and Roland. He quickly pressed the button to hide the secret room and got up to greet them.

"Ro and I just fought our way across the other side of Helios. Hope you guys didn't have all the fun on this end." Lilith snickered as she walked inside, Roland following after. Jack crossed his arms and forced a smile on his face.

"The scientists just shut down the defenses leading to the laser." Jack informed them with a soft hum. Not long after Liliths and Rolands return, the rest of the group returned along with all the scientists. Rhys had also come back during that time.

Timothy walked straight up to Jack and stuck out his hand, holding something in it. "Uh, that doctor wanted you to have this."

"Oh hey, cool." He grabbed the device and turned it around in his hand. "Cloaking device, huh? Thanks, Doc." He smirked and pinned it to his chest. The doctor nodded at him and thanked him, but Jack just shook his head. "No, YOU are great. _YOU'RE_ great. You guys disabled the defenses leading to the big-ass laser." He clapped his hands together and glanced around himself, eyes landing on the right side bookshelves for a moment too long. "Uh, we're gonna head off and shut it down, but I'm gonna summon my personal escape ship to get you guys the hell outta here. Uh, Rhys, hit that button over there." He motioned in Rhys' direction and the boy looked around for a while before he noticed the button and pressed it. The bookshelves moved away and opened up a big empty space and the doctors stepped inside. "Where is- ah, here we go." Jack pressed a button in the wall and grinned. The doors slid shut and locked.

" _Airlock sealed. Preparing to vent contents of airlock_."

"Huh?" Dr. Langois looked back to the window separating them, terror spreading on his face. Dr. Grayson instead slammed himself against the glass, banging on it.

"Waitaminute!" He pleaded.

Jack grinned at them. "New plan, everybody! Doctor Gladstone here informed me that one of _YOU_ might still be a traitor working for Zarpedon." He swiftly told them, only to have Gladstone waving his arms in frustration.

"MIGHT! I said _**MIGHT**_!"

"Hundreds of innocent lives are on the line here, kiddos. I just can't take the risk." Jack inhaled sharply. "Shoot me in the back once, shame on you. Shoot me in the back **TWICE**... For what it's worth, I'm really sorry." He crossed his arms as the airlock started to open. Some of his teammates turned to look away while others kept looking.

"Jack, _DON'T_ \--" and then they were gone. Jack sighed.

Wilhelm was the first to speak. "Huh. Didn't think you had the balls, Jack." He got smacked in the shoulder my Timothy, who simply had muttered an "oh no" in shock.

"Huh. That felt... kinda good." Jack mumbled to himself before turning back to look at the others again. "Anywho, the path to the Eye of Helios is open. Get through the inner hull and open that fast travel network so I can shut 'er down." As they were leaving, Jack continued. "Uh, Roland, Lilith -- you guys stay here, defend my office. We may need to retreat here later."

"Sounds like a plan." Roland agreed with him. Liliths hand clamped down on his shoulder and he looked over at his baffled looking companion.

"Roland, he just murdered-"

"--Sounds. Like. A plan. We'll see you when you get back." He shot a glare at Lilith, who just huffed and crossed her arms. Jack smiled at them and looked over at the rest of his team.

"C'mon, I'll show you how to get there, and then I'll have to go and do... other things." He smirked, walking towards the exit with his team of Vault Hunters at tail, leaving Lilith and Roland alone in the office.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments mean alot to me 
> 
> They often make my day
> 
> So please leave one :)


	13. You can't break me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ive been kinda down lately so if i dont update or if chapters or anythin are rly sad thats why

When Jack returned to his office to get his keycard that he had forgotten, Roland stopped him, glancing around, making sure no one was listening to him, even though no one else was in the room besides Lilith and Rhys.

"Jack, you know he could've meant one of _us_ would be the traitor," he muttered to him, and Jack stared at him for a long while, with Lilith groaning in the background, muttering to herself how Roland was really going to make him think it was one of them and actually start killing his own team.

"I don't think any of them would do that to me, _come on_ , we're all friends." Jack crossed his arms and looked off at Elpis before glancing over at Rhys, who was sitting on his desk with his legs crossed, still slightly tipsy from drinking. Jack frowned at him for a second before turning to look at Roland again. "Who do you think it is?"

"I would suspect him, he's new," Roland nodded at Rhys who placed his hand on his chest in an offended manner. Jack glanced at him with a snort.

" **Him**? Yeah, _right_. Sure." He chuckled, Rhys could never do that. The kid was a fox, in more than one way, sure, but he wouldn't betray Jack. Obviously not, because even if he would want to betray or kill Jack, he would've done that the moment he saw him. Atleast that's what Jack convinced himself.

"Whatever. Lil, let's go make sure no one gets through the Fast travel without our help. C'mon." Lilith muttered a goodbye to the two as she followed after Roland. Jack stared after them with an amused smirk and turned to Rhys, who uncrossed his legs and raised his brows.

"Can you believe it? They think _you're_ the mole!" Jack laughed, stepping between Rhys' legs, boxing him to the desk, still chuckling as he turned his face up to look at Rhys' face. The boy was staring at him with wide eyes and a ragged breath, causing him to smirk. "Are you?"

"No." Rhys said with a dry laugh, his eyes looking around, anywhere that wasn't Jack. His heart spead up as he felt Jacks breath against the side of his face.

"Good." Rhys froze when Jack suddenly pressed his face into the crook of his neck, inhaling sharply as he did so. Rhys swallowed, eyes turning in their sockets to look down at Jack, who had his eyes closed, a dark blush covering his face. "I like you too much to kill ya."

"Ah, _hm_." Rhys couldn't get coherent words out of his mouth with the other pressed against him like this, making him feel like a nobody with his overwhelming presence. The Atlas CEO, badass Siren Rhys was long gone, he turned into the pathetic little nerd he had been when he'd seen Jack for the first time.

He felt Jack shudder against him, his breath ragged. Rhys could feel something wet against his skin, but it... wasn't Jacks mouth. He glanced down to find tears running down Jacks face, and his jaw practically fell off its hinges as he felt his breath hitch against his choice.

Jack was crying. Why was Jack crying? What was Rhys supposed to do?

Akwardly, he wrapped an arm around the man, pulling him flush with his chest. Jacks hands snaked around Rhys' torso, grabbing his shirt from the back, fingers digging into the fabric harshly. Rhys brushed his robotic fingers through Jacks hair gently.

"Jack..." he whispered softly into the mans ear, his eyes scanning him in utter confusion. What was happening right now? "Hey, Jack. What... what's wrong?" He hesitantly questioned once Jacks breathing evened out. His flesh hand stroaked Jacks back gently as the man craned his head to look up at him.

"I... I've been trying to hold that in for a while now," Jacks voice was barely a whisper as he spoke, "my daughter. She was moved off Helios during the war. I wasn't aware of this and... so I called her. She didn't respond, so I asked the board. They told me she's on Pandora." Jack looked down at the ground, starting to shake again.

"Pandora isn't that bad--"

"It's not Pandora that I'm worried about. They sent her to my grandmother." Jack snarled, suddenly stepping away from Rhys, he ran his hands through his hair with a fustrated groan. "That old hag is a friggin monster," he muttered, "she's worse than anyone else who's ever lived."

"Why can't you get Angel back from her?" Rhys asked, eyeing Jack in a slightly suspicious manner. Jack shot a glare at him and huffed.

"I'm scared she might hurt Angel if I try anything. But I also worry she'll hurt her without any reason." Jack nibbled on his inner cheek as he stared at Elpis. "Though, Angel _is_ smarter than me."

After that, neither of them said much, not before Rhys stood up and stepped behind Jack, wrapping his arms around the mans waist as he propped his chin on his shoulder, looking at him with a soft smile.

"As far as I know, you're going to build a big, beautiful safe house on Pandora for her. It's safer for her there than anywhere on Helios." He muttered, eyes lidded. Jack looked at him with one eye, a slight frown on his face.

"Will we ever be like a normal family?" Rhys shook his head.

"No. You'll become the CEO and you wont have time for her. She's going to be working for you." He wouldn't know all of this without the AI Jacks memories in his heaf. He thought he'd gotten all of it out but apparently not. But it wasn't all bad. "You love her very much. You'd kill anyone who mentioned her, not wanting anyone to know she exists, worried they'll hurt her," he bit his lip, closing his eyes, "but after your death, people find out about her."

"Do they kill her?" Again, Rhys shook his head.

"...no." It wasn't a complete lie. It technically wasn't them. It was other people. Including Jack.

"Is she alive after my death?" Rhys sighed, hugging Jack tighter. He was going to be as honest as he could be.

"No. Not after either of them." Jack turned his head to look at him, his face emotionless.

"I die twice?" He asked. This time, Rhys gave a quick nod. He felt Jacks hands grab his, and Rhys was expecting him to pull them off of himself, but instead, he just held them, stroaking the back of the flesh hand with his thumb.

"First as a human, killed by L--" he couldn't tell him about her. She worked with them, it could have bad consequences, "-- _bandits_. Then... as an AI, a hologram. Killed..." he inhaled sharply, looking away from Jack.

"Killed by who?"

"Killed in the crash. When Helios crashed to the ground." Rhys lied. Jacks jaw tightened.

"You mean killed by you." He hissed. Rhys didn't answer to that, and Jack pulled his hands off, stepping away from him. "You're going to kill me."

"You tried to strangle me to death with my own hand." Rhys' eyes were glued to the ground, memories from both sides coming to his head. He felt the betrayed and hurt feeling from his side, and then the surprisingly sad, betrayed feeling from Jack. He felt like there was something stuck in his throat, and his eyes were burning. He shut them, baring his teeth and fisting his hands as he let out a small sob, tears running out of his eyes.

"Did she hate me?" Rhys knew Jack was talking about Angel. He could remember her last words. He swallowed, slowly lifting his head up to look at Jacks face.

"Yes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments cheer me up :c


	14. Look me in the eye

 

Jack hadn't asked him anything else after that. He had just pushed Rhys off the desk and sat infront of his computer and dialed the Vault Hunters. He kept an eye on them at all times, telling them how and what to do. At one point, he got another call on top of his own, and with a sigh, he answered his ex.

"Hey, sugar. I hear you're trying to shut down that laser." Moxxi had murmured to him, and he just rolled his eyes. Rhys' jaw clenched at the "sugar" part, his eyes glaring daggerd at the Echo before he realised how childlish he was acting, his jealousy getting the best of him, and looked away.

"Yeah, that's the plan. Knock it off with the "sugar" thing, will ya?" He snarled to her, and she sighed.

"Look, whatever you're about to try isn't gonna work." Jack opened his mouth to argue back but Moxxi cut him off. "A laser of that size, using that much power? There's no way the Colonel hasn't rigged it to blow the entire station if you try to disarm it."

"She-" he paused, thinking about it for a moment before bringing his hand to his face, "--yeah! Of course she did! Dammit, how did I not see that coming?"

Moxxi just chuckled on the other side, giving a pleased humm after, and Jack could basically see how she was smirking, her arms crossed underneath her bust, just like everytime she outsmarted Jack. He couldn't say he was proud he knew her so well. "Good thing you've got a tech whiz on your side, sugar. I'll help you get that laser down, no muss, no fuss, no explosions." With a sigh, he nodded.

"Thanks, Mox. I appreciate it. I'll send you the blueprints now." He didn't want to admit it, but she was of big help. Rhys on the other hand was utterly surprised that she was actually really smart. Jack noticed his stare and smirked at him.

"Alright, I've got a plan." Rhys turned his gaze from Jack to the Echo on the table. "Roland and Lilith, head to the station's reactor." There was an "okay" from Roland before Moxxi continued, "Jack, I need you and your Vault Hunters at the Eye of Helios itself. Once everyone's in place, we should be able to shut the laser down and save the moon."

Jack groaned and leaned back, glancing at Rhys for a second before he turned his attention to the Echo again, letting out a pent up sigh. "God, you're hot when you're technical."

"I know." Then the line went silent. Jack turned off his computer screen and closed the Echo, turning to look at a very unimpressed looking Rhys.

"What?"

"Really Jack?" He rolled his eyes as he turned on his heel, about to walk away but Jack stopped him, grabbing him by the wrist.

"Look, she's my ex. I kind of automatically called her hot." Jack started explaining, his fingers playing with the fabric of Rhys' shirt. He was nervous. "It hasn't been long since out breakup, I'm sorry. I try to stop myself but sometimes shit just slips out and--"

"We're not a thing, Jack." He cut him off, shooting a small glare in his direction. "You didn't cheat on me by calling her hot, it doesn't matter. Why are you apologising?" Jack looked at him, jaw clenching and unclenching, like he'd be chewing something bitter.

"Because... you seemed hurt." He whispered. Rhys simply looked away again.

"I," he bit his lip, not able to face Jack as he felt tears sting in his eyes, Jacks memories of the breakup and of their... whatever kind of realitonship he and Jack had before, it was all coming to his head, he felt baffled by the hurt feeling that Jack had felt when he didn't want to... become a meatsuit. He felt a songle tear fall down the side of his face. Jack had cared about him almost like he did about his girlfriend, "I am."

"I'm sorry."

"...I know." He pulled his hand away from Jack and walked away, out of the office. He sat down on one of the working claptraps.

Jack sighed, opening his computer to check on his team. He noticed that they had made their way to the Central Maintenance airlock. He sighed. "There are lots of Dahl troops in there that you're gonna have to fight to get through." He watched as they all slaughtered the troops and chuckled when Athena glanced up at a security camera and flipped it off before jumping onto another platform. Timothy had simply glanced at it suspiciously before jumping just like Athena, though he almost fell off to his death, but Wilhelm grabbed him and pulled him easily into his arms by the leg and back to the same place he was on to start with. They jumped together, and Jack couldn't help but shake his head before noticing where they were. "That tunnel there leads right to the laser, so just keep going. There's only a few more enemies left. You can do it, I believe in ya."

Just as they reached the entrance, another voice filled the Echo. "Detonate the charges! NOW!" It exploded into pieces, trash blocking the way. Jack hit his head onto the desk.

"Ah, for-" he sighed, "are you okay? You alright?" Everyone muttered something about being fine and Jack felt extremely relieved to hear that. "So. We have to find another way in." He rubbed the back of his head. "Alright, so, what about this? If we set off a chain reaction in the plasma conduits, it'll blow a hole in the station and you can climb through to reach the laser. You'll have to destroy the plasma regulators -- find 'em and break 'em."

"Woah woah woah -- did I hear you right?! Blow a hole in the station? What are you--" Tassiter sneered at him and Jack just grinned and nodded.

"--Yeah, that sounds crazy irresponsible, huh? You should probably fire me," he faked a suprised expression and slapped a hand to his face, " _OH WAIT_!"

During the time Jack did whatever, Rhys had left the office and was wandering around parts of Helios that he remembered weren't under attack. It was where he, Vaughn and Yvette, along with his ex girlfriend, Stacey had been with hundreds of other Hyperion workers. He walked around until he found the room he had been in with his friends. He peeked in through the window, eyes scanning the about twenty people in the room until they landed on his friends. And himself.

They were all huddled up in a pile of comforting cuddles and praying for the war to stop just like everyone else. His arms were around his two friends, Yvettes head on his shoulder and Vaughns head in Yvettes neck. He frowned. He wished he had never gone looking for the fucking vault. He hoped he could go back in time--

His eyes widened.

He started hitting on the window, and motioned for people to open the door to him, and after a moment, they did. He ran right to himself and ripped him up to his feet, waking him from his sleep.

" _Hey_ , you listen to me now. You wont go looking for a vault, never in your life. _Don't_ leave this station. You _and_ your friends will split," he pointed at Yvette, "she will _die_ , Helios will **_crash down_**. I can't make that mistake twice. Just... stay safe." With that, he dropped the Hyperion Rhys, who just wobbled on his legs in confusion before sprinting after the Atlas CEO. He grabbed his black jacket.

"The hell do you mean? Why do you look just like me? What is happening?!" He whined, and Atlas just looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"I _am_ you, Rhys." Was all he said before he ripped his arm back and stormed off. The Hyperion Rhys' friends came out of the room to pull Rhys back, while Atlas just kept walking. He returned to the office when suddenly the entire station shook. He fell to the elevators floor, waited there until he was sure it stopped, and got up, running into Jacks office.

"There's the exit. Keep going." Jack looked up from his work to Rhys who was staring at him in shock.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also i was just replaying tps when i stumbled across the lab 19 mission once again and was reminded that Jack is confirmed into some weird tenticle stuff


	15. Stay with me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all of you, i hope you're all somewhat coping with all the crap thats happening rn.

"Why did the entire station just _shake_?" He snarled as he walked over to the desk. Jack just chuckled and motioned for him to look at his screen. He showed him the explosion before returning back to monitoring the Vault Hunters.

"Just exploded a hole into the side, no biggie." Rhys groaned and rubbed his face before he crossed his arms and raised a brow at Jack. "It was the only way in. I'm just _sayin_ '."

"You're an idiot." Rhys muttered silently, and Jack just chuckled at him.

"Yeah, well atleast _I_ didn't go talk to myself." The cybernetic man raised a brow at Jack. Had he been watching him? _Goddamnit_.

"You saw that?" Rhys asked, and Jack just nodded, causing Rhys to frown. "It wont make any difference. This isn't my universe. Otherwise--" _I would remember all this through you--_ "well, I would probably know, ha... ha."

"Sure. Speaking of which, the way you lifted, er, yourself? _Rawr_ , **hot**. Wanna pick me up like that t--" before he got to finish his sentence, Rhys was lifting him from the chair and soon enough he found himself pinned against the big window in his office. "How are you even that strong- **damn**."

"I have a robotic arm, remember?" Rhys muttered, eyeing Elpis shyly. He bit his lip as he looked back at Jack, who was looking at him like he was a delicious meal, with a dark blush spreading from his cheeks to his ears and neck. His hands found Rhys' hips and pulled him closer, a smirk playing on his lips. Rhys inhaled sharply, eyes widening at the closeness.

"You got any other robotic parts?" Jack purred and wiggled his brows, causing Rhys to blush aswell. The younger looked away with furrowed brows, embarrassed beyond words. Jack chuckled, bringing one hand under his chin to make him look him in the eyes before he leaned forth and kissed him.

The kiss didn't last long because Jacks eyes landed back onto the computer, and he pushed Rhys away. The Vault Hunters had already gotten to the Lunar Launching Station, and reached the locked doors. Jack sat down on his chair and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, right. _Duh_. I locked the place before Dahl took over. Uh, go ahead and power up that fast travel and I'll let you in."

He heard Athena sigh, "Fast travel online. You're free to arrive... if you must." Jack ingored the last part and just smirked.

"C'mon kitten, lezgo." He winked at Rhys as he pulled him along with him out of the office and to the fast travel. Soon enough they reached the others, and Jack was the first to speak. "Sup." He opened the lock and entered the room, turning on the lights. "There she is -- the Eye of Helios. The weapon of weapons." He looked out of one of many windows in the room at the big laser. He grinned.

"A laser powerful enough to crack the moon..." Athena muttered, crossing her arms, "what powers it?"

"Oh, it's just -- you know. Stuff. Usual _thi_..." he cleared his throat, " _normal_..." Rhys raised a brow at Jacks stuttering, "y'know, let's just let it shut down. Let-- _let's shut it down_." Athena frowned but nodded. She couldn't bother to push it any more and let it be. "So, inside the laser is a core reactor that makes it all work. Log on the control systems and try to shut it down remotely." He pointed at the console in the room and Rhys nodded and tried to log on.

" _Remote shutdown failed. Systems lockout_." Jack groaned and shot a glare at Rhys who just raised his hands and shrugged.

"Zarpedon locked you out?" Moxxi questioned and chuckled. "Sounds like you'll need to shut it down the old fashioned way; with your hands."

"Ah, for -- she's right." Jack sighed and turned to the team. "You gotta get down to the laser core and shut 'er down manually." He quickly explained to them what they were supposed to do, and so Jack and Rhys stayed up in the room while the others were off, heading to the Helios Targeting Centrum. Suprisingly enough, there was nothing stopping them from entering.

"Huh. The Eye is... right through there. Seems kinda easy though... I expected more resistance--" just as Jack said those words, another voice came through their Echo's.

"Initiate lockdown! Raise the force field!" Zarpedon yelled, and a force field blocked their way. Jack stared at it through the window, Rhys sitting on one of the tables nearby.

"Oh, you're just the worst..." he muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Mox, any ideas?" The woman just hummed before answering.

"There should be a fusion reactor nearby feeding power to the force field. If you can disrupt it, the field should come down." She explained, and Jack looked down to the Vault Hunters who listened closely to  
Moxxis orders. Lilith and Roland weren't amongst them, but Jack didn't worry much. He clenched his teeth and glanced at Rhys who raised his brows.

"She's only talking to them now. We're alone again for a while." He answered to the silent question between them and Rhys slowly nodded. They eyed the area outside before Jack turned to Rhys and slowly stalked over to him. "So. What'd ya say to yourself?"

"I told him... not to try to find a Vault. I told him to stay on Helios." Rhys looked down at the ground, shoulders dropping slightly. He heard Jack sigh.

"Maybe you can make him have a better life than you. Maybe you did the right thing, who knows." Jacks eyes roamed the others face and he sighed, placing his hands on each side of him. "Yknow what's funny?" Rhys looked up at Jack, jerking his head back slightly when their noses bumped together. "We're not even from the same time, maybe even not the same universe, but yet I feel so..." he groaned, looking away in frustration.

"I... know." Rhys' voice was a whisper, but to Jack it was clear like day. He looked back at him and pressed their lips together. He shuddered at the feeling, a shiver shooting down his back.

"Rhys--" he grunted when he pulled back, Rhys' legs wrapping around the back of his thighs, anchoring him between them.

" _Rhysie_ ," Rhys' arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him closer. Jack furrowed his brows, turning his head slightly to mouth at the youngers neck.

"Wha-?" He gasped, and Rhys just chuckled.

"You never call me Rhys. I like Rhysie more." He purred, ending his sentence with a bite to Jacks neck. They heard the death screams of Lost Legion troops and the sounds of explosions coming from outside, but they didn't care, Jacks fingers finding Rhys' skin underneath his shirts, blunt nails scratching it gently.

"Well, _Rhysie_ , we're still in the middle of a war and-- oh **_God_** ," he tilted his head back as he felt Rhys' teeth sink into his neck, a gasp escaping his lips.

"God ain't my name but close enou--" Rhys was cut off by a robotic voice.

" _Force field power draining._ " They froze when they heard the Hyperion announcement, followed by more explosions from the outside.

"You will NEVER reach the laser core! Soldiers -- _**KILL**_!" Jacks forehead hit Rhys' robotic shoulder and he hissed, cringing at the sound of the womans voice.

"Friggin' Zarpedon." He groaned, pulling back slightly, only to be pulled even closer by Rhys, who jumped off the desk and sat onto his knees, pulling Jack with him, smashing their lips together, pulling a surprised whine out of Jacks throat. Not long after, he was on his back with the future CEO ontop of him as a flustered mess. He found it hilarious. Jack had always been so confident and sure of himself, but now he wasn't anymore. He was slightly shy and very awkward, blushed easily and stuttered.

He smiled as he pulled Jack in for another kiss.

He loved this man.

He knew that now, even with the war going on outside the window.

He loved Jack.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They frick frack


	16. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting only already written updates. Things have been going really badly for me lately so... bare with me. I'll start writing soon again.

He couldn't stop looking at Jack. Sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. He looked so peaceful with the cigarette in his mouth, his eyes closed as he breathed heavily, pants on but unbuttoned. His jacket laid next to him, shirt messy and one shoe on the other side of the room. Rhys chuckled, buttoning the last buttons of his own shirt before he kicked Jacks leg gently. The green and blue eyes opened and he looked up at him, tilting his head slightly.

"The Vault Hunters have been gone for a while now. I feel like shit's about to go down." Rhys said, a small smile playing on his lips as he walked over to the shoe and tossed it to Jack. The man grunted and pulled it on along with his jacket, stood up, buttoning his pants as he did so. He cleared his throat. Rhys called over some cleaning bots, and as they worked, a loud voice ran through the stations every speaker.

" _Force field power depleted. Force field disabled_." Jack grinned, jumping over to the closest window.

"The way to the laser is open. I'm coming down!" He glanced at Rhys and corrected himself, " _We're_ coming down!" Rhys smiled and so they were off, running down to the Vault Hunters. They entered the Eye of Helios together. They were nearing some type of an electricity field when Jack spoke again. "Yeahhh, uh -- we're gonna have to go through... _here_."

Athena looked over at him with a baffled look on her face. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Oh, **_COME ON_**!" Timothy yelled from the back while Aurelia groaned.

"Oh, this is going to be fun." She said sarcastically, glaring at Jack. The latter just rubbed his neck, letting out an akward laugh.

"It's an electrical convergence... _yaddaya_ , it doesn't matter. Just wait for the laser to fire before you run through. It'll momentarily drain the power and stop all the electricity." The man explained, and everyone muttered an agreement. Except for Rhys. He just stepped closer to it, eyeing it hesitantly.

"I bet I could pass it without getting hurt." He closed his eyes and inhaled deep before his powers activated and he ran through the electric field, ingoring Jacks panicked screams while he tried to stop him. He got to the other side safely, and just as he did, the electricity faded.

"Now! **Go**!" Jack told the others and they ran to the other side aswell. Jack ran straight over to Rhys and wrapped his arms around him, relieved that he was alright. He craned his head to press light kisses all over the left side of his face, stopping at the port on his temple to leave a slightly harsher kiss. Rhys hummed with a soft smile on his lips.

"We've got a moon to save, _loverboy_." He murmured with a small laugh, pushing Jack gently away, though not before stealing a small kiss from him. Jack smiled at him before he turned over to the door, trying to open it. He put in the code once, twice, but nothing worked.

"Son of a..." it was locked from the other side. "Aw, it -- of **_COURSE_** it's locked from the other side! **THANKS** , ZARPEDON! We're gonna have to take the long way around -- let's hit the elevator and go topside." Athena was the first to reach the elevator, and waited for the others before she pressed the button to get up to the deck.

Jacks eyes widened when he saw what was waiting for him on the outside. "Crap."

Everyones eyes were focused on the woman in the powersuit standing in all her pride, staring down at everyone and everything.

_Colonel T. Zarpedon._

Jack was the first to step out of the elevator. "I'll take care of the troops -- you take out Zarpedon's powersuit!" Rhys followed Jack, not wanting to loose the man out of his sight, while the others headed for the colonel.

"Too scared to face me yourself, Jack?!" Zarpedon shouted with a laugh, and Jack ingored it. With the power of all the Vault Hunters along with the three Sirens, they defeated Zarpedo and her troops. Jack wrapped an arm around Rhys as they walked towards the others. "Whew! That was an ordeal, huh? Man, I'm glad that asshole is dead. _Just_ \--" he let go of Rhys and let out a deep breath, "gimme a second to catch my breath here and we'll..." he leaned on his knees, "shut down the laser." He noticed the others tense up and raise their guns, and straightened up, turning around to look at what they were so shocked about. Zarpedon was crawling out of her powersuit. "Oh, _COME ON_ , she's still alive?!" He heard someone load their gun and raised one hand as he walked towards her. "Don't shoot yet. I'm not done with her."

Zarpedon wheezed as she looked up at him. "It doesn't matter what happens today... your fall is coming." She snarled, and Jack just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, _sure_ , whatever you say. Where's the Vault?" He questioned, crossing his arms. He glanced over at the others, seeing Rhys slowly making his way over.

"Hidden beneath a tangle of chemical filth! I've seen what lies inside it. You can't--" her eyes moved over to his left and her mouth fell open at the sight of Rhys' face. "No-- _no_ , this can't be. _He_. He **_can't_** enter the Vault. This is much worse--" she pointed a shaky finger at Rhys, she was trembling in fear.

"What the **hell** are you talking about?" Jack snapped, hand flying to his hip where his gun laid, and sneered down at the woman. She wasn't paying any attention to him, though. Her eyes were filled with terror as she started crawling back. Jack glanced at Rhys, who was taken aback from her reaction to him.

"He's going to be the death of billions of people." She met Jacks eyes, her own starting to loose the purple glow the longer Rhys was near her. "Jack, you can _not_ let him enter the Vault, you must turn back--"

"Bored!" Jack barked and shot her in the head. Rhys grabbed his arm to stop him, but he was too late. Her body dropped to the ground as blood dyed the ground red.

All the purple markings from her skin dissappeared, her eyes fading to normal.

Rhys felt a strange shiver run through his body.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if im a disappointment to you guys


	17. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Oh hey Niko where did all the updates go"
> 
> "In my ass"
> 
> Lol hi im miserable

"The Vault's already open, huh? _Cool_. Now let's deal with that laser core." Jack turned to the others and flashed a toothy grin before he started walking towards the Laser core. Once they reached it, Jack raised a hand at them before they went in. "Don't enter the barrel of the laser when it's firing. For _obvious_ reasons." Rhys rolled his eyes, but the man seemed to ingore it. They entered the room with the Laser. "And _this_ is where the magic happens."

"Never thought the Eye of Helios would be an actual eye." Timothy muttered as he furrowed his brows, eyeing the giant eye shaped laser in the room.

"This is what makes the Eye of Helios work. It's the core of the entire weapon." Jack explained with a chuckle. Rhys looked at him with a worried expression. So Jack had no idea what was going to happen. They slowly made their way to the upper level, closer to the eye.

Rhys crossed his arms and stared up at it suspiciously. "How could this thing even generate that much power?" He wanted to stall as much as possible, giving him time to decide what he shall do.

"Come over here, I'll show you." Rhys, and the others too, of course, carefully made their way over to Jack, who looked like he was having the time of his life. Once they were all at the very highest point, really close to the laser, Jack opened his mouth again. "There she is. Hey, pumpkin! You in there?" The thing rolled in its place to look down at Jack, the metal shield opening, revealing a giant, grayish pink eye that was blinking dumbly at them. It kind of reminded Rhys of, like, a radioactive cats eye. He frowned, looking at Jack who just kept grinning. "The Eye of Helios. Well, it's actually the Eye of the Destroyer, the monster who came outta the Vault, buuut I attached it to my laser to increase its power tenfold." He chuckled, placing a hand on his chest. "Cause I'm awesome."

"You used the Destroyer's eye as a weapon?" Lilith questioned through the Echo, and Jack just rolled his eyes.

"It was a weapon already -- all the Eridian remnants are." He explained. "I just figured out how to use it. _Anyway_ , how do we shut this thing down?" While Jack spoke with Moxxi, Rhys decided to make his way over to Axton and Maya, though Maya was quick to take several steps back when she saw Rhys.

" _What_? There something on my face or...?" The cybernetic man questioned, his hand pressing against his cheek in confusion. Maya just shook her head.

"No, just don't touch me or come too close to me. I prefer having my siren powers, thank you very much." She muttered, arms crossing as she eyed Rhys down, causing the boy to be filled with confusion. Axton eyed the two for a moment before deciding it wasn't his time to be there.

"I have no idea--" he started, but was quickly cut off by Mayas sarcastic eye roll.

" _Right_ , you also have no idea why your cybernetic eye is purple?" She snapped, causing Rhys to hit his left hand over his left eye, staring at Maya in shock.

" ** _What_**?!" He spat, stepping closer to her, making her step away. Her expression shifted from annoyance to confusion and worry.

"You _really_ don't know, do you?" She slowly asked, lowering her voice slightly as she furrowed her brows. "I was suspecting something the entire way because my powers seemed weaker around you..." her eyes shifted down to the ground, "I got confirmation when I saw you suck the powers from Zarpedon. I also noticed that-- it triggered something inside of your body. I felt it when you brushed my shoulder at one point on the way here. You could suck my powers out by touching me."

"I--" Rhys was cut off by a screech. He looked over to it, noticing Aurelia had pumped slag into the eye already. The eye was a bright pink, pulsating and blinking rapidly. An idea entered his mind.

"Ehm -- the Eye seems to be upset." Aurelia muttered, eyeing Jack in annoyance. He bit his lip anxiously.

"Eh Mox, I only juice the eye with a little bit of slag at a time. Are you sure that --" Jack spoke, Moxxis voice cutting him off.

"It won't hurt the eyeball -- trust me, sugar." Moxxi reassured him while Rhys made his way over to the older man.

"You do know that the eye will explode from this, right?" Rhys blurted out, not expecting Jack to aggressively grab him by the shoulders and gape at him before pushing him away.

" ** _What_**?!" Jack yelled, grabbing his Echo and bringing it up to his mouth. "Moxxi-- **THE EYE WILL EXPLODE**. Might want to tell me that _before_ we do this!" He shouted at her before screaming at the rest of the Vault hunters to stop what they were doing.

"If this slag stuff is powering the laser, we need to force as much of it as we can back into the eye." Moxxi said after a moment of silence. "The increased power will trip a failsafe and let us shut everything down. The eyeball may not like it, but it'll be fine, honey." Jack clenched his teeth, turning to look at Rhys who looked at the eye with furrowed brows.

"Maya," he turned to the siren, "can I... _suck power_ out of anything?"

"Anything Eridium based, I assume." She responded, catching onto what he meant. "You wont be able to handle the power from that thing, though. I wouldn't risk it if I were you. It-- _or you_ \-- might explode." Rhys nodded as he turned to look at Jack.

"Jack, I want you to take everyone and get to a safe distance. I'll be fine, I _promise_." He grabbed Jack by the face to smash their lips together before pulling back. "See you soon." He pushed Jack aside, ingoring his protests, waiting until the man sighed in defeat, leaving with the Vault hunters. Once Rhys was certain they were far enough, he jumped onto the ledge.

"Hey, eyeball." It looked at him, he looked back. "You wont like this. I wont either, but it's the only way." He didn't even know if the eye could understand him, but it seemed to calm it just slightly. Rhys sighed, biting his lip before jumping onto one of the tentacles sticking out from the sides of the eyes body. He reached his arms out, concentrating his power onto the eye-- but he didn't know what to do. He faltered slightly, thinking how he should do it. "Hey, come a little closer," he told it, and it listened. It was in an arms reach to him now, and he inhaled before he pressed his palms against the eye.

It let out a pained screech and so did Rhys, yelling in pain as he felt the power enter his veins, burning him from the inside. His tattoos were changing size, moving in different forms on his body, turning between purple and blue. He felt tears in his eyes, but stayed put as well as he could. It felt like time would have skipped like a damaged film roll, everything fading away into darkness at the end.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try and respond to all comments but also ugh i can't come up with anything to say im very sorry


	18. One step at a time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "But niko i thought you said you didn't have any updates because you had no motivation"
> 
> Um yeah well
> 
> Oops

When Rhys awoke, he awoke in a bathtub filled with cold water. Surprisingly enough he didn't feel cold in it, it felt soothing and relaxing against his skin. His eyes turned down to look at his body, only to find it completely red, like it had been sunburnt. What had happened?

" _Jack_?" He called, and the older came rushing into the room in no time. His face was filled with worry as he stared at Rhys.

"Rhys-- are you alright?" Jack asked quietly, and Rhys nodded. "Good... your idea didn't work, you more or less caused the thing to overheat, just like Moxxi said. She reassured me that it won't explode, so while you're here, we're going there."

"Jack, _no_ , take me with you, I can help." Rhys ordered as he stumbled out of the tub, collapsing at Jacks feet, his fingers grabbing the jeans as he barely held his face away from the floor. He felt the chilly air hit his nude body, causing him to curl up slightly.

"Rhys... I can leave one of the hunters here to keep you company but you're in a too bad condition to come with us." Jack explained silently as he kneeled down to run his fingers through Rhys' hair.

"Fine-- **Axton**." Rhys sneered, pushing away from Jack with a hiss. He heard the man sigh as he turned to leave the room, and soon enough he heard Axton step in, only for him to step right out.

"I am so _sorry_ \-- I thought you would have something on..." he akwardly muttered, and Rhys glanced over his shoulder to look at the man who was standing in the doorway, facing away from him.

"It's fine." Rhys huffed as he slowly pushed himself up onto his knees. He heard Axton inhale sharply behind him, before rushing to his side to akwardly help him up onto the edge of the tub, looking everywhere that wasn't Rhys. "Can you get me my pants? I can't leave like this."

"A'ight." Axton looked around for a moment before grabbing the pants laying in the sink of all places. He threw them over at Rhys, who somehow succeeded to pull them on before pushing himself up. "Where are we going? Jack told us to stay here--"

"I don't give a **_shit_** about what Jack said. _I'm_ the _**CEO**_ of both Hyperion **_and_** Atlas over in my time line so I don't think he has _any_ power over me. Neither do _you_." Rhys snapped, not able to hold back at all. He glared at Axton for a moment before he realised what he'd said.

"Yeah, _let's_ \-- let's go then." Axton muttered, stumbling out of the room on unstable legs, before making his way to the fast travel, Rhys right after him.

When they entered the room, the first thing they heard was Jacks voice, "--and we can get to the fun part; finding that Vault. I'll let you do the honors." He was speaking to the other Vault hunters, not noticing that the two others had entered, a crazed look painted onto his face. Nothing had yet reminded Rhys so much of Handsome Jack.

Axton walked over to the console and pressed the button, causing Jack to look over at the two, his mouth opening to speak, but the Hyperion announcement cut him off.

" _Reboot sequence activated. Command control reset. Rebooting in... Five... Four... Three... Two... Shutdown aborted. Invalid energy configuraton_." Jack furrowed his brows as he turned to look over in the direction of the eye.

"Oh, **great** , what _now_?" He groaned, pushing past the others to get to the window. His Echo crackled slightly before a voice came through. Rolands voice.

"Jack... I'm sorry."

" _Warning: singularity detected_." Only mere seconds after the announcement, said singularity erupted, causing everyone to be pulled towards it. Rhys grabbed Axtons broad shoulders for support, his nude chest coming in contact with his clothed one.

"Woah! What the _hell_?!" Jack barked, fingers digging into Athenas shoulder. He eyed her for a moment before stepping away.

"Good job, everybody." Moxxi suddenly spoke up. Everyone looked at their Echos in surprise, except for Jack, who was staring out of the window, practically having a breakdown.

"What-- Moxxi-- w-what the hell are you doing?!" He stuttered, a lump forming in his throat as he awaited for her answer.

And one he got. "Betraying you. Trying to kill you. Two things I should've done a _long_ time ago, you power hungry psychopath." The woman snarled. Rhys knew what was going to happen. He held onto Axton tighter, painful memories he had never even experienced in the first place coming to his head.

"What do you _mean_ , Moxxi? How did you even--" Jack stuttered, panic rising in his chest. Axton tightened his hold on Rhys.

"I've been watching you, Jack." She sneered, sounding like she was talking to a low life bandit. "And behind that smile, behind that hero complex, there's something _wrong_ about you." Those words hurt Jack. Rhys knew. Yet, he couldn't help but look at the man, stare at how he slowly broke down on the inside, his heart being shattered into thousands of pieces and the trust that was left in his system-- it just faded away. "If you come down from Helios alive, _a lot_ of decent people will live to regret it."

Jack snapped out of his shock, and went straight to panic. "No _no_ _no_ **NO _NOOOO_**!" He cried out, dropping down to his knees as his other hand was clutching his Echo, his breathing faltering and jaw clenching. " _Dammit_ , I **TRUSTED** you, Moxxi! Do you know what you've _done_?! You just killed us **_all_**!" His voice broke as he kept yelling. He wanted to cry, but he just couldn't. He had had enough.

"Bye bye, sugar." In less than a heartbeat, everything turned entirely white around them, as the explosion happened. It was loud, blinding. The light slowly faded away after a fee seconds,along with the dust, leaving them coughing and huffing.

Jack was the first to speak. Or yell, more so. " _Dammit_. **DAMMIT**! The **_EYE_**! That was _**ONE OF A KIND**_! The things I could have **_DONE_**!" He screamed as he got up from the floor and everyone stepped away. "Friggin' _liars_ \--" he gripped a trash can nearby and ripped it out of the ground, "--friggin' **COWARDS**! They're no better than **_BANDITS_**!" He flung it as hard as he could, sending it flying off to space. Everyones O2-kits activated.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all have such nice comments i love all of you wtf i had no idea people were this nice


	19. Chapter 19

Jack sighed deeply. "In time. We'll deal with 'em ALLLLL in time." He muttered, turning to look at the others. But for now, we just need to get to that Vault before they do... dumb bastards probably wanna destroy what's in there." His eyes landed on Timothy, who flashed him an uncertain smile, and Jack just groaned, continuing his speech. "Zarpedon said a "tangle of chemical filth"... did she mean Dahl's old Bakkaberk refinery site? Get back to the moon's surface and check it out. There's gotta be something there that'll lead us to the Vault." Without any hesitation, everyone exited the station, not wanting to stay there with an enraged Jack any longer. Only one who stayed put was Rhys.

"What's going on up there, John? The readings we've--" Tassiters voice cane through Jacks Echo, but for the first time ever, Jack snapped.

"SHUT THE HELL UP, Tassiter!" He screamed into the Echo. "SHUT. THE HELL. UP." Rhys flinched at every word, feeling the fear grow in the pit of his stomach. Handsome Jack was slowly being born. "My ex-girlfriend and her two BFFs just tried to kill me, and the LAST thing I need right now is your senile ass WHINING IN MY EAR! If I get ONE more message from you that isn't "addaboy, Jack!" or "I'm sending you a big bag of money!" then I'm gonna reach through my ECHO communicator and GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT WITH MY PINKIES! ARE WE CLEAR?!" He finished, breathing heavily, eyes glaring daggers into the ground, a bloodthirsty look across his face.

"I... Goodbye, John," was all Tassiter said before he ended the call.

"GOODBYE! THANK YOU FOR CALLING!" Jack snapped before slamming his Echo against the ground. Again. "Fuck-- FUCK." He ran his hands through his hair as he inhaled sharply. "Okay-- yeah, okay. I'm calm." He let his hands fall to his sides as he sighed. Rhys slowly made his way over to him.

"Jack..."

"I told you not to come." Jack snapped at him, not lifting his head to look at him. Rhys sighed and grabbed Jacks hand gently.

"I know, I didn't listen to you." He simply responded, and so they stood there, holding hands, neither saying a thing. Jack just stared at the ground, jaw cleching as he tightened the grip on the youngers hand. Rhys studied his every expression shift, after a moment noticing that Jack seemed to have relaxed. He smiled softly as he stepped closer to the older, wrapping his robotic arm around his neck. "Everything will be fine, Jack."

"How can you promise that?" Jack hissed from between closed teeth, his free arm wrapping around Rhys' naked waist, putting them in a dancing position.

"I can't." Rhys whispered before activating the music player in his arm, calm music starting to play from his 'slow dance' folder. Jack stood frozen for a moment before relaxing and starting to sway with the music. Jacks both hands found their way to Rhys' waist, while Rhys wrapped his real arm around his neck, next to the cybernetic one.

"You're an ass." Jack huffed after a while, making Rhys smirk.

"You too." He chuckled as he pressed a soft kiss to the side of Jacks neck. The older pulled his head back slightly to meet his gaze before planting a kiss on his lips.

"You're my favourite ass," he purred once he pulled back again, his hands sliding down to grab Rhys' ass, making the younger yelp in suprise before pressing his forehead against Jacks shoulder to laugh.

"I known I am," he laughed as he smiled up at the other, meeting his loving heterochromatic gaze with his own, almost matching one.

"We should head to my office soon. Can't stay here for the few days that it'll take for them to find the vault." Jack suddenly pointed out, pulling away from Rhys as he started walking over to the fast travel. Rhys stared after him for a moment before walking over to it aswell. In a few moments, they arrived in Jacks office, where Rhys grabbed his clothes and weapons.

"Jack. I'm going down there with them." He informed the other, making him turn on his heel to stare at him in disbelief.

"What?! Are you insane-- YOU COULD DIE!" Jack yelled at him, the crazed look from earlier coming back, making Rhys clench his jaw.

"I'm sorry," Rhys whispered as he checked that he had everything, "I'll see you around." With that, he left Jack alone in his office. He knew he was making things worse but he had to be at the Vault before Jack.

Rhys was on his way over to where the map pinpointed that the others were at when his Echo sprouted to life. "Why are these assholes still fighting? Their leader's history." Jack complained, probably not aware that Rhys was listening aswell. "Why not kick back, take a break, go see the sights? Eh, nevermind, we'll wipe them out soon enough. That'll be a sight." And the line went silent again. Rhys kept going, and reached the others just in time to help them out in a battle. In the middle of said battle, Timothys Echo, which was directly linked to Jacks, spat out Jacks and Tassiters argument.

"Good news, John! You're through. And this time the board is behind me. You've been terminated." The CEO had said, making everyone expect the worst. Rhys already knew what was going to happen, and kept fighting, mostly ignoring what was being said.

"You say one more word to me and I will make your death slow." Rhys glanced over at Timothy, noticing that the double didn't even react to Jacks threats, even though he should be aware that he would have to be this man for quite a few years more.

"What are you--" Tassiter began with an irritated voice, but Jack cut him off.

"That was three. I'll be seeing you soon." His tone of voice dropped into a growl before the connection was cut.

 


	20. Soon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry christmas! Here's a gift for all of ya-- I'm posting two chapters today 

The rest of the way was rather silent, only sometimes being interrupted by the sound of battle, and Jack guiding them, of course. The route was clear, and soon enough they entered a room with one lone Lost Legion Soldier.

"I surrender! I give up!" He whimpered with raised hands the moment they stepped in.

"Of course he does! Now kill him." Jack snarled the command, making the soldier step back in shock.

"Why?!" He screeched, back hitting the wall behind him.

Athena looked slightly shocked as she crossed her arms. "I don't kill people who aren't shooting at me." Aurelia glanced over at her and nodded in agreement, the others seeming to do so aswell.

"Thank you! **THANK YOU**!" The soldier said, bowing at them slightly. Jack groaned very loudly.

"Oh, _what the hell_! Don't let him **_LIVE_**!" He yelled at them, and that's when Rhys stepped forwards, eyeing the man for a moment.

"Oh, piss off, Jack." Aurelia muttered.

"You idiots." Rhys snarled at them, pulling out his gun. He pressed it swiftly to the soldiers neck and shot, sending him to the ground, dyeing it red. Everyone stood shocked. Not even Jack spoke. "Let your enemies live, they'll shoot ya in the back. C'mon, into the elevator, let's go."

When they came to the ground, they were met by a large battle ship, soaring over them. "Vault Hunters sighted! **_OPEN FIRE_**!"

"No way -- we've come too damn far! You shoot that bastard out of the sky and you play around in his friggin' **GUTS**!" Rhys cringed at theee image he got from that as he sprinted towards the entrance, making it seem like he was simply fighting the Lost Legions.

"Jack, we could just rush to the Vault -- we don't need to fight the gunship!" Athena yelled in her turn as she threw a grenade, ducking into safety.

Jack just kept screaming in blind rage. " _No_! As Rhys said, you let your enemies live, they shoot you in the back! I don't want any surprises! I don't want any _SURVIVORS_! You blow that ship to hell, and you do it **_NOW_**!"

Athena rolled her eyes as she shot an enemy in the head, stepping next to Timothy. "He's losing it." She muttered to him. Timothy chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"I don't know why I signed up to impersonate this guy," he muttered back to her. Ingoring the others, Aurelia spoke directly to Jack.

"Look darling, bloodlust can be fun, but you're taking it a shade too far." Jack laughed at her and the connection was cut again.

Meanwhile, Rhys had sneaked into the opening to the tunnel, out of the bloodshed. He got quite far before Jack noticed it.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" He yelled at him, only to be ingored. Jack stared at the map, it showed that Rhys had stopped. He stared at the image for a moment before realising that the kid must've ripped his tracker off. "Oh you fucking asshole... _**DAMMIT**_!" He jumped out of his seat, activating his shield as he made his way to the fast travel. Soon he arrived at the battle ground, to everyones surprise.

"Keep fighting! Kill this dude, I'm getting Rhys!" Jack roared at them, and the team just nodded, Timothy staring as he left again.

Jack ran, he ran, and ran. He was soon at the point where Rhys had thrown his Echo to the ground at, and didn't know where to go next. He wandered around, following where there had been the most bloodshed, until he reached a big shield.

With am annoyed groan, he pulled out his Echo and dialed the Vault hunters. They had succeeded to kill the spaceship and were on their way to him.

"Are you sure you want us to keep going?" Athena asked him, soundimg extremely unsure. Jack just let out a loud, barking laugh.

" _ **YES**_! Push forward, meet me down herr. We're getting close -- _hooo-oo-ooo_ , I can **FEEL IT**!" He sounded exactly how he felt, his mind blurry with so many emotions, slowly slipping from sanity. He just kept laughing.

Meanwhile, after running through the big shield, Rhys was almost at the Vault already. He was sure that he would be there any moment now-- when suddenly he felt a weird power sucking him in, and everything faded to black.

The team had caught up to Jack and they had gotten past the shield and were all heading towards the vault together. Jack just kept following the way Rhys seemed to have gone, and soon enough they entered a very... exotic area. None of them had ever seen anything like it before, but that wasn't what caught Jacks attention.

It was the Vault at the highest point. It was glowing, it didn't look inviting. The road to it was completely open and there was odd purple goo all the way to the opening, splattered around like blood.

Jacks Echo lit up and he answered the call. "Here's the score, Jack..."

Jack groaned, ofcourse it was the bitch. "Oh hey, Lilith. How you been?" He spat out, venom dripping from each syllable as his lips curved into a bloodthirsty grin.

"Jack -- you and your Vault Hunters have one chance to leave this place." She paused for a second and groaned. "I'm really hoping you don't, but--"

" _Hooooo_ , baby, you're gonna look real pretty dying." Jack snarled with a dry laugh. "All that ego and sass just oozin' outta bullet holes." He could imagine it in his head. God, he wanted to kill her so bad. But not yet. He had other things to think about.

As they reached the vault, he wrapped an arm around his body double.

"Hey, Tim. This all goes according to plan, your pay is gonna skyrocket, cause I'm gonna be somebody people _**REALLY**_ want to kill." He grinned at the other man, Rhys' words returning to his mind, the way the kid talked about him being the CEO of Hyperion soon... he couldn't wait.

"That's what worries me." Timothys words woke him from his thoughts and he smirked at him.

" _Attaboy_." Jack stepped towards the opening, letting his arm fall down from Timothys shoulders. "Alright -- in we go! Let's get in there and make me famous."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys celebrate chritmas or nah? What are you all planning on doing during the holidays?


	21. One last time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's that second chapter ;3

Jack stood in awe as they entered the Vault, staring at a kind of... other doorway that probably took them to where the treasure was. He gasped in amazement. "Now, **THAT**... _that_ is shiny..." He muttered as he made his way towards the opening, hesitating before stepping through it.

When they all entered the final destination, they were met with a familiar siren.

Rhys stood in the middle of the room, arms at his sides, shirtless as his tattoos glowed, two big wings spread behind him. He chuckled as he looked up at them, revealing his face, his one glowing purple eye, a mouth filled witg razors and his face filled with different markings. He stretched out his arms and muttered something, summoning a guardian, the Sentinel.

"Attack them, Warrior," Rhys' voice was deeper, darker. It was as if something was controlling him. He stepped onto the Sentinels head, letting it lift him up into the air. The Sentinel materialized a itself a huge weapon, it reminded an axe. Rhys laughed and the guardian attacked.

" **CRAP**! Kill the guardian-- but don't hurt Rhys!" Jack yelled and pulled out his gun.

And then they fought, for a long time. The Sentinel was hard, it was strong. And just when they thought they won, Rhys' powers summoned it back, twice as strong. It was hard, but in the end, they managed, sending Rhys flying into one of the nearby walls before they slaughtered the guardian.

Jack stared at it for a moment before sprinting over to Rhys. He ingored the Vault Symbol that had appeared into the middle of the room as he pulled Rhys into his arms. His body burnt him, but he didn't care.

" _Rhys_! Rhys, answer me!" He yelled in despair, shaking the youngers body. "Please wake up..." he whimpered when Rhys didn't react in any way. He pulled the boy to his chest, hugging him tightly. " _Rhysie_..."

"Jack, the Vault. Leave him. You can't help him." Wilhelm placed a hand on Jacks shoulder gently, and the latter sighed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he laid Rhys to the ground again, letting himself be pulled up from the ground. He walked over towards the Vault Symbol.

"Wait... what? That's it? That... little thing. The hell did..." He muttered as he neared the symbol, furrowing jis brows as he reached his hand out to touch it. "Ohh... what kinda weapon..." when his fingers grazed the icon, he found himself being lifted off the ground and placed in a throne that materialised behind him. He gasped as his vision was filled with a bundle of different images.

"Ohhhh my... **GOD**!" The images from the Vault of the Warrior. " _I GET IT_!" Lilith floating in the air, powering the vault. "I understand!" The way he ruled Hyperion. The map of all Vaults in the Universe. He saw it all. "I understand **EVERYTHING**!" He saw himself on the ground, Liliths glowing hand infront of his face--

"Heya, handsome." Without him noticing, Lilith had phasewalked in and he found the Vault Symbol sinking into his face before Lilith phasewalked out again. He flew onto the ground, yelling in pain as the symbol melted into his face, blinding his green eye completely. He roared as he held his face, bent over on the ground.

"Son of a..." he crawled up onto his shaky legs, "I'm gonna **KILL** her! _I'm_ _gonna_ _kill them **ALL**_!" He dropped his hands out of his face as he glared back at the others with a shiteating grin across his face, blood covering the part of his face that wasn't in flames. Everyone gasped as they saw the form of the Vault Symbol sunken in his face. " _First_ , you're gonna find me a doctor. _Then_ we're gonna _wipe_ those bandit _**bastards**_ off the _face_ of **_Pandora_**. And _then_... _Then_ we're gonna wake _The Warrior_."

Athena was the only one who dared to speak. "The **what**?"

Jack limped back to the throne, sitting down onto it. "It's gonna be so **_good_**. We're gonna scorch the freakin' planet in **fire**." Chuckles escaping from between his lips as he replayed the images in his head. "There's gonna be _screaming_... bandits are gonna _die_ left and right... ...I _can't_ **_wait_**!" He tilted his head back to laugh, his voice filling the room as he laughed harder and louder by every passing second. He felt himself start to shake.

Athena turned around and looked at the others, nodding for them to follow, leaving Jack alone.

 

* * *

 

"Mr. Tassiter? Mr. Tassiter, are you there?" A womans voice filled the office, louder than the sounds of the bony choking man on the ground beneath the bigger one.

The grip on the others neck was tightened as the one in control let a wicked grin spread across his face. "Mr. Tassiter's been replaced, sweetcheeks. Starting today, you're working for _me_." He spoke, voice deep and venomous. The woman was silent in confusion for a moment before speaking again.

"Who is -- _John_ , is that _you_?" She questioned, cringing as she heard the snap of a neck and a pleased sigh following it.

The man let his hands loosen from the deathgrip as he slowly stood up. "Call me Jack, honey." He smirked, straightening his suit in the dark office. He turned his face into the light, revealing his trademark mask. He sighed in pleasure. He finally had what he deserved. " _Handsome_ Jack."

 

* * *

 

Rhys had found himself passing out at some point, before flying out of the whole Vault, as if thrown by a bigger force that he couldn't control. He landed in sand and dust, suprised screams of people sounding around him. He coughed and wheezed in pain, his fingers digging into the ground under him. Suddenly human hands were pulling him onto his feet, helping him stand as he wobbled, barely keeping his eyes open. Fighting against the pain in his eyelids, he forced them open and turned to look at the man standing in front of him.

His mouth opened in surprisement as he pulled away from the people holding him, slightly turning around to look at the big Vault Symbol behind him.

He had been thrown out through another Vault, it seemed. He looked back at the man who was still standing in awe, blood covering his body. Rhys felt as if something was stuck in his throat, tears swelling in his eyes. He jumped into the others arms, his fingers running through his hair as he embraced the shorter one.

"I'm so sorry," Rhys whispered to the other, who just smiled and hugged him tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could easily be the end to this story but dontcha worry... Theres more.
> 
> Anyone notice how Rhys called the vault thing Warrior btw? Hehehe...
> 
> Maybe Zarpedon hadn't meant this vault ;)


	22. After a long while

"What happened?" Vaughn asked when he pulled away from the tight embrace, face returning to a stone cold expression. Rhys chuckled weakly.

"I should be asking you that, bro. You're _covered_ in blood, standing outside a Vault." He nodded back at the opening behind him, and Vaughn crossed his arms.

"We just killed he Guardian. Now speak." Rhys' smile dropped. _Sure_ , his friend looked different, but he wasn't expecting him to act different. He frowned.

" _Wow_ , you've changed." He retorted, crossing his arms awell as he eyed th other down. Vaughn just groaned and pushed past him.

"Yeah, people might change in a few years of not meeting them." He snarked at Rhys, who just stared at him in confusion. Vaughn ingored his gaze as he looked at the opening to the Vault.

" _Years_?" Vaughn looked at him with an annoyed look painted on his face.

"You've been gone for more than two years now, Rhys." He whispered, and Rhys felt all the colour drain from his face.

"I..." He looked down. He didn't know how to respond to that, so he just let his arms drop to his sides.

"Yeah." Vaughn muttered before turning to look at the Vault again. Rhys returned his gaze back to the shorter one and sighed.

"Its... kind of a long story." He said, and Vaughn just huffed, sending an annoyed, halfhearted glare in his direction.

"Tell me when we return to the home base." With that, he stepped into the Vault, leaving Rhys behind. Just like everyone else.

 

* * *

 

When they returned to the base, Rhys was hit with some painful memories. "Oh, _right_. Helios... I forgot it was destroyed. You've made it look better though." Rhys cracked an awkward smile to his bro who just ingored it as he kept walking.

"Yeah." Hw muttered as they entered the station, departing from the others as they stepped into an office room. Seemingly it belonged to Vaughn. "Now speak." The man turned to Rhys, who sighed as he sat down on the couch in the room.

"So it all started with Jack..." and so he told Vaughn the entire story. Starting from when he awoke in Jacks, not Handsome Jacks, just Jacks bed, everything from the party to the first time they kissed, their adventure on Elpis, the moments in Jacks office.

He didn't leave out the time he ventured Helios and found himself and spoke to the Rhys of that world.

He told about the way Jack started break down. The way he had watched Jack go from Jack to Handsome Jack. The way the man had slowly slipped away from sanity, his mind only a haze of violence and hate in the end.

He told him how he left Jack, looking to get to the Vault first, only for him to wake up in the air, being thrown out of the Vault and onto the ground of Pandora, infront of Vaughns feet.

"That is pretty crazy." Vaughn agreed, looking off into the distance. "Though, it doesn't explain the two years. That shouldn't even have taken a year."

"Maybe it was a kind of payment for traveling between times. Or maybe the trip took a little longer than it should have. I don't know, honest." Rhys bit his lip. "You called me one time, remember?"

"No, no I don't. What the hell are you talking about?" He saw the confused look on Vaughn face and got up from the couch, making his way to the shorter mans side. He placed a hand on his shoulder.

"With Gortys," he said with a worried expression, noticing Vaughns expression become pained and he shook his head, "Lets go find her, she'll tell you the same--"

"Rhys, Gortys is dead. Has been for a long time now. You've missed alot." Rhys' face paled and he stepped away, letting his hand fall down from Vaughns shoulder.

"What?" He barked, eyebrows furrowing as he balled his fists in anger. Vaughn took a cautious step back as he eyed Rhys suspiciously.

"After the Vault closed, she shut down." He told his former friend, who looked like he was about to kill someone if he said the wrong things.

"I--" Rhys clenched his jaw and looked down, "Where's Fiona? And Sasha?" Once again, Vaughn just shook his head.

"We don't know." Rhys let out a fustrated shout and grabbed the table infront of the couch and threw it into the office window.

" **Fuck**!" Maybe he had spent too much time with Jack. "Okay, get me weapons and open a Vault for me-- I need to return. It seems something went terribly wrong-- maybe my actions did make changes after all..." he muttered, starting to pace around in a circle, his hands running through his hair aggressively.

"We still have the Traveler nearby, if you're willing to open it again. Might take a few months, though since we don't have Gortys." Vaughn said after a moment of silence and Rhys nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah that should work." He turned to Vaughn. "Can you get me weapons and ammo? I have a feeling I wont be thrown into the most pleasant time." Vaughn nodded quickly as he pulled out his Echo.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Don't mess up this time-- oh and Rhys?" His eyes remained on the screen for just a few moments before he looked up at the other, who stared at him with confusion.

"What?" He questioned, and Vaughn just clenched his teeth before he exhaled sharply through his nose.

"Come back sooner." It was more of an order than a question, and Rhys felt a small smile on his lips.

"I'll try." He told Vaughn who nodded with a ghost of a smile on his face. The shorter man placed a hand on Rhys' robotic shoulder gently.

"Thanks. I'll tell Amanda to show you where you can stay for the night." Amanda was Vaughns PA, though that wasn't what he called her, but it didn't really matter to Rhys. It wasn't really his business.

"Thanks... bro." He said, hesitating slightly at the 'bro', his eyes staying put on Vaughns face, the look of surprise that spread across it when Rhys called him that.

"No problem." He cracked a smile. "Bro." Rhys chuckled, pulling Vaughn into a hug. The other hugged him back and they stayed there for a moment before separating.

"Oh and Vaughn?" Vaughn cocked a brow at him and he inhaled anxiously before chuckling. "The beard. It... it suits you. The-- whole new look is great on you in general."

"Thanks." Vaughn looked down with a smile on his face." You look great too." He looked back up at Rhys and pursed his lips together into a tight line. "Now you better get going though--"

"--One more thing," Rhys interrupted, "How's Atlas?" At that, Vaughn looked away again, a frustrated look returning onto his face.

"It got taken over by some Bandits and is currently one of the worst selling businesses ever." He explained, and Rhys just groaned before nodding.

"I'll go there in the morning, get my place back." He snarled, glaring at the window he'd broken earlier. Vaughn stepped away and nodded.

"I'll give you some of my men with you." Even though they hadn't seen eachother in a long time, Vaughn was still worried something could happen to his former best friend. Rhys looked at him, surprised, and smiled.

"Thank you, Vaughn."

 


	23. Atlas belongs to ME

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmmmmmmm hi

"Rhys. The guards are ready to escort you to Atlas." The woman, wearing a guards armor, her blonde hair poking out of the helmet, informed Rhys, who was preparing for whatever was to come, his suit on and cleaned, his guns in place, his shield activated. He spun on his heel to look at her and nodded as a thanks to her and she walked out of the room.

Rhys sighed before following her. He passed Vaughn on his way out, and the man stopped him.

"Rhys, be careful out there." Vaughn ordered him, placing a hand on his shoulder with a worried expression. "You have my best men and women with you, you can keep a few of them as your personal guards but send the rest back here after you're done." Rhys stared at him for a moment before smiling and nodding, pulling his friend into a hug.

"Thank you, Vaughn. I wont forget this," he muttered before parting and making his way to the guards. He jumped into the car-- _from the Catch-a-riiiiide_ \-- and told them where exactly to go. He felt a lingering sadness at the back of his mind when he thought about Scooter. He truly had been the best of them-- and now he was dead. He couldn't believe it.

Rhys was surprised when they parked in front of the Atlas building and no one came running, there were no guards, no turrets. No wonder they were doing so badly. Rhys straightened himself before he stepped out of the car, makkng his way to the doors. He punched in the code that he was very aware of, and the doors slid open. He smirked, entering the building.

"Hey! Who are you?" Rhys turned when he heard someone talking to him, only to find a small guard pointing his gun at him. Rhys just laughed.

"I work here pumpkin. I **own** this place." He snarled with amusement lacing his words, noticing how much he sounded like Jack when he spoke and smirked. The small guard swallowed, eyeing the Hyperion armored guards that towered over him with fear before nodding.

"Continue." Rhys nodded to him as he kept walking. He made his way without almost any conflict to the CEO's office and opened the doors, startling the woman sitting in the chair.

"Hey, give back my-- _Yvette_?" Rhys gasped when he recognised the woman seated in the chair. She just swallowed anxiously and eyed the room that was slowly filled with Vaughns guards. "The _**hell**_?!" He snapped at her, stomping over to her-- _his_ \-- desk, slamming his hands onto it. "I thought you would've died when I left you in that cell."

"I didn't. There were some other people-- _decent_ people who saved me and took me with them." Yvette snarled back, her eyes glaring daggers into the taller one. Rhys let out a laugh.

"Right. Well, this time I'll make sure you die!" He jumped over the desk, his fingers finding themselves around her neck, Jacks memories coming to his head from when he strangled Tassiter to death-- he was right. It felt so good. He felt himself start to laugh, chuckles escaping with every choking sound Yvette made, making him press harder, his shit eating grin not dropping once during the entire time.

"Sir...?" He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he snapped out of whatever state of mind he had been in and jumped off Yvette, "I think she's long gone, sir. You don't need to strangle her any longer."

"She--" he looked at the guard next to him, "I--" she seemed to be confused with his sputtering, his eyes darting between her and the dead body, "She was my best friend..." he muttered as he fell back against the desk, slowly sliding down onto the floor. He pressed his face into his hands. "What have I done..."

"Finish taking over the place." She said before walking back to the other guards. Rhys sat there for a moment before coughing. He stood up, activating the microphone to the whole facility.

" _Hello_ everybody! Remember me?" He activated the camera that would brodcast his face onto every screen in Atlas-- something he had installed after the whole fiasco on Helios-- and smirked at it, "It's Rhys! Your boss. This company and Hyperion both belong to me, don't try to take my place ever again or--" he moved the camera so they could see Yvette on the ground, "--you might end up like this." He pushed it back to its olace with a smile on his face. "Got it? _Good_ , thanks. See ya!" With that, he shut down the mic and the camera with a sigh.

"Well done sir." One of the guards quipped after a moment and Rhys just nodded. "Now, who would you want to keep as your personal guards?" The same one asked, making Rhys stop whatever he was thinking about, and look at the man. He was right, Vaughn had mentioned something like that.

"I'll take... what's your names?" He asked, listening to them telling him all their names, and in the end he just sighed. "The only ones I remember are Edward and Emily. You two can stay, the rest can leave." The two guards nodded and thanked him while the others simply left.

"Now to find the damn person who could possibly take my place when I leave-- and give it back when I return." He muttered to himself, standing up once again. "Come," He ordered the guards and they followed him out of the office. First place he looked was the people he had personally hired. He talked to them all, but none of them really seemed capable of running a company. That seemed to be the same throughout the entire facility-- and that's when he got a brilliant idea.

Pulling out his Echo, he decided to call Vaughn, who picked up after the fourth call. "Rhys--" he started but Rhys cut him off.

"Vaughn, do you want to take care of the company when I leave?" This question made Vaughn silent, and Rhys became worried. What if he said no? What if--

"Uh, yeah. Sure. I guess?" Rhys sighed in relief and thanked Vaughn before quitting the call.

"So that's one problem taken care of. Now let's catch up with work."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will reply to comments but its gonna take a while,, sorry


	24. Everyone makes mistakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *frustrated noise*
> 
> This is a little late im sorry

In a few hours Rhys had fixed quite a few security issues that they had, before starting hiring, firing and moving his workers around in the facility, hiring people who used to work for Hyperion, firing people who used to be Dahl, and so on. About three days later, he had gone through all records and all offices and workers. He knew everything that there was to know.

Then he moved on to fix their gun production, changing things so that they didn't only make weapons, but also electronics and stuff that Atlas used to make. Speaking of which, he needed some coffee, he was dying. He ordered his PA-- _yes_ _he had hired a PA_ \-- to get him one. She had red hair and was called Meghan, though he called her Meg. He had chosen her because she reminded him so much of Jacks old PA. He wondered what had happened to that woman, she was amazing at her work. He rubbed his face with a yawn.

"I think you should get some sleep, sir." Meg muttered when she placed the coffee mug onto his table, and Rhys looked up at her with a tired look painted on her face. He nodded as he slowly got up, letting her help him out of the office and all the way to his apartment, where she left him alone.

Rhys went straight to his bedroom, stumbling the whole way, his eyes barely staying open. He collapsed onto the bed with a groan and was quick to pass out.

That night, he had a dream. He dreamt about everything that had happened to him, he dreamt about Jack, both the one from another time and the one that had been in his head. He dreamt about the time he had ripped his eye out-- he saw himself place it in a small box that he later hid in his bedside table. He put Jack back into his head, which resulted in the man killing him, Rhys' heart breaking into pieces.

He woke up covered in cold sweat, his heart beating fast. He knew that that would be what would happen if he were to return Jack back to life, no matter how in love he was with the man. He glanced in the direction of the small table next to his bed anxiously.

"Jack..." he sighed, closing his eyes, memorising their last kiss before he leaned over and opened the drawer and pulled out the godforsaken box. He picked up the eye from the inside and stared at it. Was Jack even alive in there anymore? He didn't know, he didn't want to know.

But he had to know. He put the eye back in its place before getting out of bed. He pulled on his clothes and headed to his own lab. There he kept track of all his personal jobs and things no one else could know of. He pulled out a notebook with different types of cybernetic arms and eyes drawn and planned on it.

A detachable arm would be nice, and something that he could have that would easily take away all control from a virus-- like Jack. He wrote down his plans before starting his job. The arm would have to have some kind of key-- a password perhaps. Or maybe a physical key that he could hide somewhere in the arm.

He was awoken from his thoughts when his Echo started ringing. With a groan, he answered it. It was his PA calling.

"Sir, you have a meeting with Maliwan in an hour, shouldn't you be on your way back here already?" Rhys just groaned again, bringing his hand to his face. He really didn't want to deal with them right now. "Did I wake you up?"

"No, no I've been awake for hours... I'm in the lab." He closed the notebook and slid it back into a locked drawer before standing up. "Make me something to eat, I'll be heading up there soon." He informed her, and it wasn't a total lie. He would go via his apartment and bring Jack down to the lab but after that he would surely go to the office. Maybe.

"Alright sir. See you then." She ended the call, leaving Rhys alone with his own thoughts once again. He sighed as he turned on his heel, starting to head to his apartment. He took the private elevator there and got Jack, just as he planned before going back down.

When he entered the lab, he felt like something was wrong. Silently, he sneaked to glance into the main room, where he saw two Maliwan guards whispering to eachother.

"I heard not even Yvette could access this place. He probably keeps really secret shit in here, maybe he even has the AI somewhere in a corner laying around," Rhys brought the small box to his chest and clenched his jaw. He heard the other guard let out a laugh. "What? It's possible."

"That dude was obsessed with Jack, do you really think he wouldn't have it in his apartment-- or maybe he carries it around like a damn freak!" Now they were both laughing. Rhys just clenched his teeth, opening the box and glancing at the eye. He looked around himself, somewhere he could put it so it would be safe-- he leaned over to one of the drawers nearby and hid it there before stripping off his jacket and shirt. He stepped into the room.

"Hey, boys. Lookin' for something?" He snarled when he stepped in, startling the two guards, who turned around and pointed their guns at him.

"Shoot him! He's not wearing armor! It's an easy kill!" Rhys just grinned at them while the other guard just stared at his friend in shock.

"Have you not heard of him? He doesn't wear armor and such because he's basically the most powerful being that exists!" Word truly did travel fast. The real reason was because he couldn't properly use his powers because it burnt him now that they were much stronger than before. But they didn't need to know that.

"Hey, freak-- you're not a siren. I don't believe the damn stories. Guys can't be sirens!" With a shrug, Rhys stepped closer to him.

"Ya wanna bet?" He stuck out his real arm, covered in markings. The guards just stood there in fear before raising their guns.

"Don't come closer. We will shoot." They threatened, thinking it would scare the CEO.

"Go ahead." Rhys smirked, the shield he had inplanted into his arm the day prior was invisible and very small-- but probably one of the strongest shields in existence.

"Maybe he's not a siren, maybe he's something worse. Jonathan, it's not worth it." Rhys watched the other guard lower his gun as he placed a hand onto the others shoulder, but said Jonathan didn't move. "Fine." The other looked at Rhys. "I surrender." He threw hes gun to the side and stepped closer, but Rhys wasn't about to trust anyone. His tattoos lit up, and he took a step closer.

"I don't." With that, he brough the poor guard into the air and exploded him into small pieces of flesh, blood and armor. Jonathan simply stared at that in utter terror and shock, fearing for his life. "Unless you wanna end up like that, tell me how you got in."

"Your PA..." he weakly whispered, backing away from Rhys, who looked like he was about to actually explode.

"Go tell your fucking company to get the fuck away from my damn facility right now or this will happen to all of you and everyone you care about." With that, the man ran. Rhys had never seen anyone run so fast before. He clenched his teeth, now he knew he couldn't keep Jack anywhere safely. He went and got the eye, staring at it for a while. He pocketed it before cleaning up a little, putting his clothes back on and headed into his office, where Meg was laying on the ground, shot by his guards after he had ordered them to.

"Thanks." He muttered to them both as he watched them clean her body away. They simply nodded before continuing. Rhys sighed. He would need a new PA now too. "Can one of you find me a bunch of people that could possibly be PA material?" The guards nodded and he thanked them again before heading to the elevator, "Oh, and make sure no one disturbs me. I'll be in the lab."

He headed down to finish his plans, before updating his Echo port so that he could easily take Jack out, and it had stronger fire walls, making it so that Jack wouldn't get his arm into his own control, atleast not before he got the detachable version finished.

With that done, he headed to his apartment again. It was three in the morning and he was tired, but he was still going to do this. He had put Jack onto a plug that could be pushed all the way into his head and left there, but the port would still work properly-- it was just safer for him. He plugged Jack in and--

Everything turned black.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if ya enjoyed!


	25. In my shoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack isn't happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to post last week haha i am terrible at this

Everything had been dark for so long. Nothing to look at, nothing to feel. Smell, hear. It was just nothingness.

Until this day.

Suddenly everything turned white, he could feel a cold breeze go through himself, memories coming to his head. It was like waking up from a coma. He saw everything that had happened to him in his life.

_His pet._

The way his mother had cold heartedly slaughtered it in front of his eyes. It had been the first thing he had loved.

_His mother._

The way she hit him, screamed at him. Even his father feared her. So much that he abandoned him-- leaving him alone with the monster he called his mother.

 _His granny_.

The buzzaxe. It hurt. Really did, he still had scars. Both emotional and physical. He hated his mother, but his grandmother was so much worse. He was certain he was going to die.

 _His wife_.

The way her and Angels screams filled the room, he sat behind the door, tears running down his face. There was nothing he could do to help. He had never felt so broken before.

 _Moxxi_.

It was what made him snap. Having your own girlfriend betray you and try to kill you is one thing, but having her collect a bunch of people to do it with her was another. He thought they were people he could call friends-- he trusted them.

 _Angel_.

Oh, his beautiful little girl. He loved her so much. But she was a monster. She killed her own mother. Jack feared her. But he never wanted to hurt her. He just wanted to keep his daughter safe. But instead, she killed herself to get away.

It was the final straw.

But then there was _Rhys_.

The one thing he knew he had actually been completely faulty for. He had tried to kill Rhys-- and that was his biggest mistake. Rhys was more dangerous than him, something he didn't know was even possible.

Then he started seeing something new. Rhys-- mixed into many of these memories. Something was messing with his mind. But... these weren't his memories. These were Rhys' memories.

_He was in Rhys' head again._

He opened his eyes, finding himself laying on the floor in someones bedroom. He slowly got up, nothing looked familiar. Not even the figure laying on the bed-- he squinted his eyes so he could see better, but his vision was swimming. He stepped closer to the bed, first then recognising the boy laying on it.

 _ **Rhys**_.

"What the... _hey_! Wake up!" He tried to shake the kid, but ended up just phasing through him. Goddamnit. He looked around. Was there anything he could hack-- the arm! He turned back to Rhys and tried to lift the arm, but for no use. He must've made some changes in his cybernetics. With a groan, Jack sat onto the bed, leaning his face into his hands.

He heard the bedsheets shift, and brought his eyes back up to the kids face, where he was met with a pair of wide heterochromatic eyes.

"Jack..." Rhys whispered, slowly sitting up, his gaze not leaving the older ones face a single time. Jack sat there, frozen. He felt like something was stuck in his throat, he couldn't speak. "I'm sorry."

"I-- uh, yeah, kiddo. I figured." He clenched his teeth, reality slowly sneaking back into his mind. Rhys had betrayed him hadn't he? That's what he was apologising for now, he assumed. "You--"

"Look, Jack, your head must be a mess right now." Rhys pushed himself out of bed, and Jacks eyes automatically landed on his ass before traveling back up to meet his eyes. The younger was giving him an annoyed look before continuing. "I'll give you time to go through everything in your mind while I work. It's uh-- eight in the evening right now." He muttered, looking at his palm with furrowed brows. Jack just nodded before standing up. He left the apartment with Rhys and headed to the lab with him. Rhys showed him around the place, and he tried asking the kid for a body, but Rhys just glared at him before continuing. When he was done, he sat down in front of a desk and pulled out some papers.

"This the arm you think is gonna stop me from strangling you in your sleep?" Jack teased, hovering above the plans, his eyes moving from the papers to Rhys face. He didn't look too pleased.

"Yes, it is _exactly_ that." Rhys snapped at Jack, glaring at him. Jack frowned, pulling away.

"What crawled up your ass?" He muttered as he turned his back at the kid to hide his dissapointed face. The kid still hated him. Atleast this version of him. He heard Rhys sigh behind him.

"I'm sorry Jack, I didn't mean to be an ass." He glanced back at the kid who was now staring at him with a small pout. "Would you uh... wanna help me?" Jack felt a small smirk on his lips and he nodded, turning around once again. He watched how Rhys' pout formed into a smile and the kid turned to his papers. "Well, I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the design otherwise the same, except that the shield that I have in it could be better hidden and bigger-- thus making it stronger. Now before you start making fun of me-- I could easily make that. That's not the issue. But I need it to be detatchable. Easily detachable. We both know how your moods work." Jack nodded slowly.

"Yeah, yeah. That we uh, we _do_." He agreed hesitantly. Rhys gave a shy smile and a shrug before scribbling down some numbers. "Well-- I'm not saying that your plans are total skag shit, okay yes I am-- but--"

"They're not _that_ bad!" Rhys argued like a five year old and Jack just shook his head with a laugh.

"You shouldn't make the shield bigger, instead you should get another, smaller shield that could be in your head-- y'know, to protect your cybernetics better up here. Make it antivirus too." Jack explained, drawing things in the air with his fingers. Rhys just silently listened to Jack ramble. His ideas were even worse than Rhys', they made a terrible pair. Rhys chuckled, shaking his head. Maybe this wasn't a terrible mistake.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls comment  
>  ily all ♥


	26. A good team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ,,late again i know

After a few hours, the two CEO's succeeded in making an amazing new arm for Rhys. _Sure_ , it was terribly stupid, with small turrets that could be activated through the Echo eye in his wrist, the part that would always ne attached to his body was made to be the shield, while the arm also kept the shield it had had earlier already. After that, they sent the papers to Rhys' best mechanics and the two headed to the office, where they had to sit through a bunch of terribly boring meetings.

" _Hey_ \-- Rhys, kiddo." Rhys looked up at Jack with a bored look while some random worker spoke to the others. "Did I ever tell you the spoon story?" Glancing back at the others, Rhys shook his head. Jack grinned. "So, ah, _man_ , this one guy in New Haven, _right_?" Rhys nodded, acting like he was paying attention to the others when in reality he was sitting there, listening to a hologram of a dead, murderous CEO that no one else could see. He was totally sane. "City's burning, people dying, _blah blah blah_." Jack let out a snort. "This guy rushes me with a _spoon_. _A_ _fricking_ **_spoon_**." Rhys had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop himself from chuckling, meanwhile Jack just cackled loudly next to him. "And I'm just _dying_ laughing." In less than a second, Jacks eyes went from happy to dark, and Rhys didn't feel like laughing anymore. "So I scoop out his eyeballs with it, and his kids are all, " _aghhhhh_!,” and, _ah_...you had to be there." He finished with a dry laugh, and Rhys just kinda stared at him for a moment before his attention turned back to the people at the table.

"Sir?" Rhys raised his brows and looked at a young girl who was looking at him with a worried look. "Are you... alright?

"I'm not actually feeling too good. Can you leave? I'll make sure that this gets rescheduled..." he muttered and everyone got up from their chairs and left. His PA rushed to his side. He looked at the man. "Can you reschedule everything from today?" The man nodded and Rhys thanked him before getting up. He ingored Jack as he made his way into his apartment and all the way to his bedroom, where he stripped himself down to his underwear, which for once rendered Jack speechless, and crawled into his bed.

"Kid, you confuse me." Jack muttered as he sat on the bed next to Rhys. Rhys just turned his back on the hologram.

"I don't know how to lead a company." Rhys whispered after a moment, taking Jack by surprise. The man turned to look at Rhys with a baffled look on his face.

"The _hell_ ya mean? You've come this far. You _definitely_ know how to lead a company. You _can't_ give up now!" He snapped, and Rhys just pulled his blanket over his head. "Oh for-- _YOU HAVE ME_! Handsome **GODDAMN** Jack, the best CEO _that ever lived_!"

"Jack. You're **dead**." Rhys snarled back at him. "Even this version of you isn't _really_ you. This is-- _for fucks sake_ , you're literally created by the creepiest scientist on Helios! Stop for a moment and _t_ _hink_ about that, **_would you_**?! You are. **NOT.**   **really.**   ** _alive_**!" With that, Rhys got out of bed and stormed into the bathroom, leaving Jack alone with those words running around in his head.

"I... I'm not really me, _am I_..." he shook his head. Rhys had a point. He glanced in the direction of the bathroom, he heard the shower turn on. He didn't know what had triggered that reaction out of the kid, but he really didn't want it to happen again. His fingers twitched.

After a few hours of them not speaking to eachother, Rhys approached Jack awkwardly. The hologram ignored him. "Jack. I know I said some stupid things and I'm _sorry_ \--"

" _No_ , you were right. I'm _worthless_ in this form. I'm not really even who I think I am." Jack muttered back, his whole posture practically screaming danger. But Rhys didn't care. Jack couldn't hurt him.

"No, Jack, you're _not_ worthless. You _matter_. Atleast to **me**. And I uh, I need your help. Leading the company. I want you to be my VP." Rhys suggested, keeping his gaze at the ground. He noticed from Jacks feet that the man turned around to look at him.

"Kid. You know that's an insane idea, right?" Rhys just nodded. He heard Jack sigh. "Fine then."

"I want you to know I didn't mean the things that I said--" Rhys started, but the other cut him off before he finished his sentence.

"It's fine." Jack said. Rhys just stared at him in disbelief before sighing and giving up. Jack wasn't gonna admit he was hurt by what Rhys had said, and he wasn't about to push him.

"Alright. Lets get Atlas back to its old glory?" At that Jack lit up, a grin forming onto his face.

" _Hell yeah_."

 

* * *

 

In a few months Atlas had passed many companies, and was currently fighting from the first place along side with Maliwan. Rhys had no one else to thank for it but Jack. He knew so much, he was so good at what he did. No wonder Hyperion did so well.

Speaking of Hyperion... the company hadn't died along side Jack, it hadn't died when Helios crashed. But it had moved away from Pandora. Its main business was on Elpis, it had shrunken in size extremely much, it was currently smaller than Dahl. When Rhys had told Jack that, the man had been upset for a few days before he remembered that Rhys was also the CEO of Hyperion. He begged the kid to go and take over, but Rhys just said that it wasn't currently safe. He explained to him that they were going to enter a vault in less than a months time, and could be gone for more than a year, and that made Jack speechless.

Rhys told him about his adventure that night. Jack figured out that what he had seen had really been Rhys' memories, not him adding Rhys into his own memories.

He didn't know how to feel.

That night, after Rhys had gone to bed, Vaughn had succeeded to open the Vault. The first thing the small man had done was call the Atlas CEO, who answered with a groggy "who is this". Vaughn told him about the news, and he could practically hear how Rhys' eyes widened.

Rhys shuffled out of bed, muttering non understandable things to his friend while the other sat in silence at the other end in confusion.

"Um, I will-- be there in the morning. Yeah. Okay. See you then, bye." Rhys ended the call and started looking through his things. He pulled out his list of the best guns they had produced and sent a message to his PA that he would get them to him.

"Kid, whats up? The hell are you doing?" Jack suddenly spoke up, reminding Rhys that he wasn't alone in the room. He stared at Jack for a moment in confusion before stuttering something that the hologram couldn't understand. "Repeat that could ya?"

"The Vault. It's-- it's open." Rhys sputtered, stopping for a moment. He was going to meet Jack-- while having the Handsome Jack AI in his head. His eyes widened. This couldn't end well.

"What? _Really_?" A grin grew onto Jacks lips and he rubbed his hands together. " _Oh_ ~ pumpkin! Hurry up-- I can't wait to see what kinda treasure's awaiting me!" The hologram jumped up into air and stayed there, floating above Rhys, staring at him with an amused look. The other just sighed and shook his head. "I meant _us_ , of course."

"That's not-- _Jack_. There's _no_ treasure. I'm going there so I can enter the time I was in earlier, when _you_ found that Vault with Timothy and the others." Rhys explained, pulling out his newest clothing, the Atlas logo at the front of his jacket, CEO written under it. On his pants back pocket was the Hyperion logo, but it was covered by his jacket, only to be seen if he took it off. His shoes were a pair of black boots and he had a button up shirt that was as red as blood.

He put the clothes on, finishing the look with a hidden shield-- kind of like Jacks pocket watch, just better looking. He smirked at his own image in the mirror before looking up at the hologram.

"Jack. I want you to know something before we go." The hologram nodded as it floated down to eye level with Rhys. "We're gonna meet, well, _you_ \--"

"Ah." Jack looked at the mirror, where he couldn't see his own reflection, and sighed. "Yeah, _alright_. I got it. Well, see you later then." With that, the hologram flickered away, leaving Rhys alone in the room. The boy sighed before he grabbed his stun baton and stuffed it into his belt before heading up to his office where his PA waited for him with a bunch of guns. He grabbed the best of them and checked they were loaded before putting them in place. He told his PA Vaughn would be in charge, but couldn't sit in the chair, so instead the PA was going to be there, though everything would still go through Vaughn. The PA nodded and so Rhys was off with his guards.

When they arrived at the Vault, Vaughn was there, grinning at Rhys. The taller jumped out of the car and ran into his best friends arms and hugged him tight. "I'll miss you bro."

"I'll miss you too." Vaughn muttered into Rhys' chest and the taller smiled before pulling away. He patted Vaughns' shoulder gently as he moved his eyes over to the Vault. "Be careful in there."

"Thanks, I will." With that, Rhys ordered his guards back to Atlas and walked over to the Vault entrance. Before he got to step into it, Jack flickered into his view, arms crossed as he eyed the Vault.

"Let's go then, eh, kiddo?" Jack smirked back at him, and Rhys just sighed with a nod, glancing behind him, waving at Vaughn before stepping into the abyss.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All your comments brighten up my day 


	27. Daughter like mother-- dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this on Friday... Oops

The only thing he could hear from the middle of the darkness was a far away "I love you," being said, the voice sounded familiar.

 _Too_ familiar. He blinked once, darkness still surrounding him as he sat on the cold floor.

"Access granted." He heard another, more robotic voice speak up, followed by a mans voice.

"Consider this your final warn-- _no_ , consider this **MY** final warning." Rhys recognised that voice, Jacks voice. What was the man talking about? "Turn around and I promise I'll make it quick. But I _**swear**_ , you take _one_ more step, _every_ soul back in Sanctuary will die staring at their own _lungs_ as I _rip_ them from their chests." The threats were clearly not pointed at him, and Rhys furrowed his brows.

He couldnt see the hologram anywhere nearby. "Jack... who are you talking to? What--" he whispered, but halted when he noticed a light from behind him, shining brightly. He turned to look at it.

A girl stood in the middle of the round room, tattoos across her body shining, the white light illuminating the room. She was facing the other way and all Rhys could see were her Siren wings, black hair and feminine figure. He slowly raised up from the ground.

"Eridium alone could never charge the Vault Key." It was her speaking. Rhys furrowed his brows. "It needs a catalyst - something to awaken its power. It needs... a _Siren_." He could hear the sadness in her voice. A voice he didn't recognize. He felt uncertain, uncomfrotable and scared. What if this wasn't the right time or place? Maybe Jack was already dead-- "Jack acquired his Siren catalyst a long time ago." Rhys kept himself from sighing in relief. This must have meant that Jack was still alive. "He kept her hidden from the world for years, but finally - you will be able to set her free." Rhys felt his eyes widen. No-- "I detect you're getting closer. Hurry and reach me - you must get the Vault Key and... deal with _me_."

It had to be her. Had to be...

" _Executing phase shift._ " Her tattoos shone brighter, she was using her power properly now. "The key is here, but--" she let out a sigh, Rhys could hear the fear and pain in her voice, "...to _truly_ stop Jack from waking the Warrior, you cannot just steal the Vault Key - you must destroy his catalyst. You must destroy..." the room lit up entirely, blinding Rhys for a moment, "... _me_." The room was now lit normally, and the doors slid open. At the door stood familiar faces, and Rhys quickly hid himself.

"Jack's spent years pumping me full of Eridium, using me to charge his Key and manipulate his enemies." Angel said. Rhys knew it was Angel. He knew enough about Jack, having his memories in his head, to know what kinds of things he had done. This was one of them. "Destroying the Eridium injectors that keep me... _alive_... will stop the Key from charging. And it will end a lifetime of servitude. Now--"

" **You get the _hell_ away from my daughter!** " Rhys flinched when he heard Jacks voice, looking up at the screens around the room, he saw Jacks face. He had never seen the man this angry. It scared him.

" _Aghh_!" Angel screeched, and Rhys turned his head to see the shield that had wrapped around Angel, and the eridium injectors-- pumping into her. She was shining slightly brighter and Rhys cringed at the thought of how that must have felt, hand flying to his gun. He was terrified at this point.

Angel looked down at the Vault hunters as she was held in the air by her siren powers, wings spread wide. "The Erdium injectors! Destroy them!"

And thats when the battle begun. While the Vault hunters shot at the injectors, Rhys was thinking about how lucky he was that he had gotten to hide in time, he wouldn't have wanted to be in the middle of this fight. They were almost all his friends.

There was Axton, Maya, Zer0, but also Jack. He couldn't fight any of them. So he clutched his gun tighter, feeling like his heart was about to jump out of his chest and up into his throat.

Suddenly, one of the injectors exploaded and Angel laughed in glee. "Yes, _just_ like that!"

"Oh, _no_ you don't! **_Shields_**!" At Jacks word, shields appeared around each of the pipes, and Rhys looked back at him again. His face was twisted in rage and bloodlust. Rhys frowned. He was probably too late...

He turned his attention back to Angel who seemed to be struggling even more. She had told them she was trying to access the shields, and Rhys just frowned. She should have been drained already, the amount of power she was using must've been exhausting, but the eridium was keeping her powers active.

"Bandit, if you keep this up, I'm heading down to blow your brains out myself. _**You hear me?!**_ " Jack snarled, and Rhys couldn't helpt but be afraid. He had loved the man Jack had been, but this version... He was too afraid to love this version.

Angel just laughed at that, it was a hateful, mocking laugh. "He's _lying_ \- the coward would _never_ face you in person!" Rhys clenched his teeth, ready to show himself when suddenly he heard the doors near him open, and watched as many other doors did too. Loader bots were marching in. Exploding, Gun, War, every kind. "I can't stop Jack's defenses! Be careful!"

" _Hey_! Up here! Need a hand?" Rhys shifted his eyes over to one of the doors on the walls, with a access way to the injectors. He assumed it was incase they broke-- but that wasn't important now. What was important was the fact that the man standing there was Roland. One of the best bandit leaders that existed.

"Roland - I need you to lower the shields around my Eridium injectors!" Angel told him. The man just gave her a thumbs up.

"On it!"

Jack spoke up again. "So this is how you bandits fight, is that it? You can't come straight for me, you gotta kill an _innocent_ _girl_?!" Rhys didn't even want to look at him anymore. He kept his eyes on Angel.

"That's how he works - he'll try to guilt you, make you think it's your fault. Don't listen." Rhys couldn't help but bite down on his tongue. He hated the way she talked about him.

Jack chose to ignore it. Actually, Rhys didn't even know if he could hear her. "You are _endangering my baby girl_. This is my _**vow**_ , every _friend_ , every _child_ , every _person you ever passed on the street_. I'm gonna **_kill them all_**. You _didn't_ follow the rules, _bandit_." Rhys felt a chill run down his spine.

He knew what was coming.

"Sweetheart, _everything_ you could _**ever want** _ is within these **four** _**walls**_." He knew this was sincere. He remembered this. He felt his lips move along with Jacks words. "Angel, do you have _any idea_ how much I've **_sacrificed_** for you? The bandits I've _**killed**_ , the people I've **_manipulated_** \- _everything_ I've done was to _protect **YOU**_!"

"Promise me you'll kill him, friend." Angel spoke to Roland.

"I lowered the shield - hit the injector, now!" It exploded, and Rhys knew once the third one was destroyed, Angel would die. He sprung into action, using his powers to create a new injector out of a forcefield. Roland jumped out of the way and everyone looked at him.

"Who the hell--" He heard Jack start asking before he recognized him. Rhys just let out a small snarl, pulling off his jacket and tore open his shirt, tossing them aside. He couldn't fight properly with those on.

With a smirk, he spread his arms, eyeing everyone in the room. "If you want to kill her... You have to go through _me_ first."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So why i didnt post this on friday-- or even Saturday(aka the day i wss supposed to post the chapter after this one)was because i got like REALLY sick and went like to the hospital placey and i had fever and was in so much friggin pain, still am, but my fever is slightly lower and im not dying anymore. Im so sorry :/


	28. Death soar upon us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone im not really doing too good, ive been really sick, in and out of the hospital a lot and our old family friend died last night. It would be nice if you all could leave atleast a short comment to make my day a bit better

"Rhys-- is that you?!" Axton sounded almost scared, and Rhys just smirked at him, a dark expression on his face.

"Yeah, it's me." He purred,smirking when he saw everyone hesitate. They didn't know what to do. His shields were blocking the bullets coming from the Loader bots while he stared at the others in the room. When he noticed his shields were nearing their end, he ready to blast the damned robots to pieces-- but then it stopped.

His Echo-eye shone brighter, and his palm light had turned on. The Loader bots seemed to have been hacked-- it was like that time in the Atlas facility.

Rhys turned his head to see Jack - the hologram version - standing next to him. "What are you..."

"Just helpin ya out kiddo." He responded, looking at everyone in the room, his eyes finally landing upon Angel. Rhys saw his shoulders tense. "I never realised how miserable she was here. I was too scared to--" he cleared his throat and looked away. "Yeah..."

"Why are we just standing here?!" Lilith suddenly snapped, and Rhys turned his head to look at her.

"We can't just kill him! He's our friend!" Axton snapped back. Behind him, Maya rolled her eyes.

"Friend? We haven't seen him in who knows how many years. Grow out of your stupid crush, Axton." She told him, and he just huffed, raising his gun again. "But yeah, I agree. We shouldn't kill him."

"Yes we should! Don't you remember--" The readheaded siren begun, but was cut off.

"I remember fine, Lilith. Everyone does." Maya snarled, looking between her and Rhys. "We don't need to kill him-- lets just take him hostage." The others hesitantly agreed, and Rhys groaned.

"So this is how it is, huh." He mumbled, looking at Jack, nodding at him. The loader bots started moving, and he could hear Handsome Jack letting out some kind of sound. He seemed to think the loaders were him.

Holo-Jack controlled the loader bots in a way that seemed weirdly experienced. Rhys assumed it was like the bots in Atlas-- oh well.

He didn't want to kill these people in cold blood. Not yet, atleast. The only one trying to kill was Holo-Jack.

Rhys pulled out his stun baton and readied himself for a fight.

"What the hell?! Why can't I control the bots-- friggin--" Handsome Jack begun yelling, but stopped once he realised that the bots were on his side. Technically.

Rhys smirked up at the screens, at Jacks suprised face, before looking back at the others. His tattoos lit up, and soon he was phasing behind the other Siren-- Maya. The bluehaired woman didn't even have time to turn before Rhys was shoving the electrified stick into her back, sending her flying across the room. She let out a screech, her powers activiting as she tried to fight the electricity, but she couldn't even control them. She flew onto Axton, her active powers knocking him out. Her tattoos, earlier glowing in a vibrany blue, returned to their dull colour as she lost consiousness aswell.

Rhys grinned. Two with one hit.

The two laid unconcious on the ground, and the shortest one in the room-- Salvador, was it?-- decided to try to personally attack Rhys, but he didn't even get close when Rhys wrapped him in a forcefield and threw him into the air, slamming the stun baton into his side. The man fell to the ground with a thump.

"Rhys! The injector!" Holo-Jack yelled, and Rhys noticed his forcefield injector had been destroyed. With a growl, he created it again, and added another shield around the last one. He phased to the other side and fixed the injector that had been broken first. All three were somewhat working again.

"Oh thats it! Come at me you little punk!" Lilith sneered, jumping down infront of him. Rhys jumped back, his stun buton falling from his grip. He looked at it with a pathetic whine. Dammit.

"Just kill this bitch!" Holo-Jack complained, making his Loader bots attack the Siren. Roland was still doing his best at helping Angel out with the injectors, but it wasnt working.

"I-I wont kill h--you!" Rhys snapped, looking at Lilith. Jack just groaned next to him, watching as his Loader bots were destroyed one by one. One of the explosions made Rhys loose his balance for a moment, hitting his head against the wall. Lilith just laughed and attacked, her tattoos glowing in a golden colour.

A Siren versus another.

This was going to be a shitshow.

Rhys pulled out his gun, holding it with his robotic arm. He pointed it at Lilith, along with his powers. She was strong-- but he had the power from the Vault and from the Helios eye in him.

"I could destroy you in one hit." Rhys muttered, cracking his neck. A sinister expression spread across his face.

"No you can't--GAH!" Her sentence was cut off by a screech as Rhys phased behind her, slammed his palm on her shoulder, fingernails digging into her flesh as her powers started draining into him.

"I'm not like other Sirens." He whispered, and she ripped herself away from his grip. He sighed in satisfaction, a dark smile appearing on his face. Lilith fell on the ground, grasping her shoulder in pain.   
"What the hell?!" She yelled at him, crawling away from him. She looked behind him, at someone. "Behind you." She said, but Rhys just chuckled. Oldest trick in the book.

"Good try, but I'd suggest you get going with your boyfriend. Unless, ofcourse, you want to watch him slowly die." He got closer to her, and was about to grab her when suddenly he found himself being shot at. His shield blocked the bullets successfully, but it still startled him. He phased out of the way, finding Zer0 standing there, their gun pointed at him.

"Told you." Lilith chuckled. Rhys looked around himself, not seeing Jack anywhere in the room, he must've dissappesred when Rhys hit his head. Then again, not even tge real Handsome Jack was on the big screens anymore. His gaze moved up to Roland, noticing he had broken one of his forcefields already, and he snarled, creating a new one, again.

"Roland-- it's useless! He's going to keep doing that over and over again." Angel suddenly spoke up, reminding everyone that she was still there. With a huff, Roland stepped away from his work and looked down at the others.

"You guys seriously can't kill this guy? You killed Wilhelm easily-- you've killed stronger things than this kid. Come on, team!" Roland told them, and Rhys just let out a dry laugh.

"Pal," He murmured with a smirk. He phased up to where Roland was standing and leaned against the man, his jaw ok his shoulder, "you have never even _seen_ anything as powerful as me." He whispered, before impailing him with a sword.

Down below, Zer0's hand flew to their hip, where their sword usually lay-- it wasn't there.

Roland let out a ragged breath, and Rhys slowly pushed him forwards, sending him face down onto the ground, Zer0's blue sword sticking out of his back.

Lilith let out a screech.

Her boyfriend had just been brutally murdered infront of her.

Rhys smiled.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment, as i said in the first note, it would be very nice..


	29. And so we meet again

After Roland had died, Lilith had gone for the attack.

She had phased infront of Rhys, her arms reaching for him. He simply stuck out his left arm, grabbing her by the wrist and twisting. She cried out, both from the pain from her arm, as from the pain from her powers draining out of her.

Rhys' eyes raked over her body, a disgusted look on his face. Once she was panting, exhausted, powerless, he let go of her wrist, pressed his foot against her side and pushed her off. She fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Zer0 stared at the two bodies on the floor for a moment, then up at Rhys. A frown appeared on the screen of their helmet and they flickered away, turning invisible. After a moment, Rhys heard the fast travel activating. He smirked.

Dropping down onto the ground, he looked at the destruction he had created. Everyone was unconsious-- or dead, in Rolands case. He dragged them all to where Maya laid, not wanting to touch her and tale her powers, and concentrated his powers. He was sending them back to Sanctuary.

After a moment, they were gone.

Rhys leaned back with a sigh. He felt more than exhausted. He couldn't even bother to wonder where Jack was.

He let himself fall to the ground, onto his knees. He sighed, leaning forth. He had overused his powers. He wasn't used to them yet.

Then, he puked blood.

After that, there was nothing. Just a thump from when he fell to the ground, his eyes closing as he lost consiousness.

 

* * *

 

"--ke up! Why aren't ya waking up, dammit! Hey, wake-- oh, I think he's waking up." Fingers. In his face. "Kid." They were snapping. "Kiddo." In his face. He groaned, pushing his head back as he peeled his eyes open. Blue. Thats all he saw. Everything was blue.

"What--" He started, vision clearing up. He stared up at a face. It looked familiar. He tilted his head slightly. Oh. Jack. Ofcourse.

"Morning, sunshine." The hologram purred as Rhys sat up, Jack following Rhys' movements, keeping them face to face. Rhys just frowned, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Jack-- wait. Where the hell...?" He looked down. He was sitting on a couch. Nothing too fancy, but it wasn't complete trash.

"Well--" Jack started with a shrug, but was cut off by another voice, making him look over his shoulder.

"Dad-- Dad stop!" Angel yelled from her spot. Rhys looked over in her direction, only to meet the heterochromatic eyes of a very real, very angry and very dangerous Handsome Jack. Rhys inhaled sharply, sitting straight on the couch. Holo-Jack scooted out of the way, clearly shocked from seeing himself.

"Aha! You're awake!" Jack snapped, a scowl harsh on his face as he stomped towards Rhys. "You-- you--" Jack halted in his steps. Rhys didn't even dare to breathe. "You saved my daughter."

Letting out a deep exhale, Rhys let his shoulders slump, still keeping eyecontact. "Yeah, I uhh, I did."

"So-- God, kid, stop looking like a kicked skag. Stand up." Rhys frowned, but did as told. He glanced over at the hologram, but he was just staring at the other Jack-- the real Jack. He looked back at the man aswell.

"Uhhh... You're not gonna kill me, are you?" Rhys asked suspiciously, and Jack just let out a harsh laugh, shaking his head.

"Kid. Without you, my daughter would be dead. My baby girl." Jack said, voice slightly strained, a small smirk on his lips. Rhys swallowed, looking past Jack, at the locked up girl. She was staring at the ground, looked completley broken. Atleast she was alive.

First then did Rhys also notice that the room had gotten bigger, seeming more like an apartment someone could actually live in. He scanned a few doors, finding out where the bathroom and kitchen were.

Meanwhile, holo-Jack snapped out of whatever shock he was in. He had gotten up from his crouching position and was currently walking over to Angel. "That's how she died. In our time. I..." He pressed his hands against the shield around her and slowly slid down onto the ground. "I love you, my Angel. My little Angel..."

"Yeah..." Rhys said, mostly to the hologram, but the real Jack ofcourse thought he was replying to him, and he suddenly found himself being pulled into an embrace. He felt his cheek brush against Jacks in the action, the older mans arms wrapped around his torso. Rhys swallowed, awkwardly hugging him back. The mans scent filled his nostrils when he pressed his face down, against his shoulder, inhaling sharply. He still smelled amazing.

"Rhys... God, kiddo. I--" Jack cleared his throat, pulling away. He took a step back, looking off into a wall, conflicted. Thats when it hit him. In this time, he and Nisha were dating by now, weren't they? Rhys frowned, looking at the hologram again. He hadn't moved one bit.

"Jack..." Both men looked at him, and he sighed, eyes not leaving the holograms blue ones. "I'm sorry."

"For what, kiddo?" The other Jack said, and Rhys was looking back at him again. His brows were furrowed, and lips pressed tightly together. Rhys took a step back, his shins hitting the couch.

"For... Leaving?" It was more of a question than a statement. It was the only thing he could come up with in such a short notice.

"It's... It's fine." Jack turned away from him again, this time looking over at Angel. He crossed his arms. "Maybe if you would have stayed... Maybe-- maybe she would be happier."

"What do you mean?" Rhys asked, and Jack just sighed. He sat down onto the couch, pulling Rhys next to him, wrapping an arm around him.

"She killed her mother at a young age because she didn't know how to control her powers." Jack told him. "And, obviously, I couldn't-- still can't teach her anything. I can't help her. Besides," Rhys leaned against his shoulder, "I'm a busy man. She was so alone. And my girlfriends-- let's just say, they're not suited for motherhood. Suppose Moxxi was better off than me, but Nish. God, she hates-- ah. Hated. Kids." Jack tensed up after mentioning Nisha, and Rhys draped an arm over his chest gently.

"She died already, didn't she?" His voice was quiet, hoping not to make the older too upset.

"Yeah." Jack pursed his lips together, continuing his talk. "What I'm trying to say, is, you could have been a good parent for her. Better than me." They sat like that then, quiet, staring at Angel.

Rhys wondered where the hologram had dissappeared again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My phone kept wanting to write disssspeared instead of dissappeared. Why.


	30. Distressed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mm. Hi. This is a bit early but I know I might forget tomorrow since I'll have a friend come over and that'll distract me. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, or whatever.

"Angel... Baby."

No response.

"Please, I love you."

Still nothing.

"I'm so sorry baby. Please forgive me. I love you so much..."

"You know she can't hear you, right?" Rhys muttered as he walked up to the hologram that stood by the powerfield. Angel finally lifted her head, and Jack dissappeared with a sneer.

"What...?" The girl muttered, furrowing her brows. Her eyes were sunken, hair was a mess. She looked so drained as she stood there, charging the Vault key. Rhys swallowed.

"Hi Angel. I'm--" Rhys begun, but the younger Siren cut him off. He frowned.

"I know who you are. You're the freak that just ruined my life." She snapped at him, clearly not pleased that he had saved her life.

"Angel. Just, _listen_ , okay?" The girl shook her head.

"No. I'll have plenty of time _later_. I'll be stuck here forever, being used for my powers. By my own _father_." She let out a chuckle, a cough following after, and she looked at the ground with an empty expression. "He says I'm in here so that other people can't hurt me. _He's a hypocrite_."

"I can _help_ you." He told her. He glanced over at Jack, who was working on his laptop, wearing reading glasses. Good, he wasn't paying attention.

"To control my powers? It's a tad late, _dontcha think_?" She was just as stubborn as her father, wasn't she... Rhys sighed.

" _No_ , Angel. I learned about a year ago how to use mine." Rhys explained, but Angel just rolled her eyes. "And _besides_ , that's not the only thing I can do. I can strip you of your powers completley." At the mention of that, Angel looked up again, more hopeful this time. She stared at him in slight awe.

"You... _Can_?" She slowly asked, and Rhys nodded. A small smile appeared on her lips. "I'd like that, actually."

"As soon as possible. I promise." Rhys nodded at her before he turned back to look at Jack. The man was still deep in thought, and Rhys smiled. He could make this work.

" _Rhys_." The boy turned around. Holo-Jack was standing behind him, looking at the ground. "Tell him-- _me_ \-- that you're going to the shower. I wanna have a chat withcha." With that, the hologram flickered away, leaving behind a confused Rhys.

"Uhh. Okay." He muttered, turning around and making his way to Jack. He called the mans name and he looked up at Rhys. "I'll go shower, if that's alright."

"Yeah, whatever kid." Jack muttered and looked back at his computer. Rhys frowned, but nodded, scanning the room. The shower was in the bathroom. _Ofcourse_.

When Rhys entered the bathroom, Jack flickered into his vision again. Instinctivley, Rhys took a step back. Jack just frowned, backing up a bit aswell, mostly for Rhys' comfort. The younger visibly became more relaxed. "So, ah, what do you want?"

"A lot of things." Jack responded. He hesitated for a moment before sighing, and looking Rhys in the eyes. "I want Angel back. I want my body-- my life back. I also--" He stopped abruptly, turning his back to Rhys.

After a moment of silence, Rhys stepped forwards. "You also what?"

"I also want... _You_." He admitted, even if it was quiet. Rhys froze, watching Jack slolwy turn to face him. "I've seen your memories. I know what you feel. What you've done." He looked past him, at the door. "You love _him_. And... And I'm him as well. I just... Jesus." Shaking his head, Jack looked at the ground again. "Look, _nevermind_. It's not relevant." Before Rhys could stop him, he flickered away again. With a frown, Rhys sighed.

He supposed he could shower now. A cold shower would be best.

And so he did. The water wasn't freezing, but it made him shiver. It distracted him from his thoughts, gave him peace for once.

After a while, he stepped out again. He grabbed the black and yellow Hyperion themed towel and wrapped it around his waist, throwing his clothes into the washer, before heading out again.

"Jack, do you have any spare clothes I could borrow?" He asked once he entered the room Jack was working in, leaning against the doorframe in only the towel. Jacks eyes roamed his body, eyebrows climbing higher onto his face, and a stupid smirk appeared on his face.

"This is actually Angels apartment. I don't keep my clothes here, kid." He told him, chuckling softly. "Ya can borrow a pair of Angels pants. Your legs are skinny enough."

"Uhh, you do know my legs are much longer than hers?" Rhys thought about how ridiculous he would look. Jack just nodded.

"Yup," He said, popping the p at the end, "but you'd look hot as hell." He added, making Rhys pout. Jack noticed, shrugging slightly. "You could also just chill around naked, _I don't mind._ " He wiggled his eyebrows, his mouth in a toothy grin. He moved his laptop onto the small table next to the couch and took off his glasses.

"I'll just... Wait in the bathroom until my clothes are washed." Rhys muttered, turning to leave, but Jack stopped him, pulling him into his lap, causing Rhys to let out a small yelp. The mans arms wrapped around his torso while Rhys held tightly onto the towel.

"Ya don't _have_ to do that..." Jack purred into his ear, kissing softly right underneath it, and down his neck.

"Jack-- _hey_. S-stop it. Let me go..." Rhys stuttered, swallowing harshly, but the man simply chuckled.

" _Shh_ , cupcake. You know you like it." Rhys just squirmed in his grip, feeling extremly uncomfortable at how the man was treating him. He didn't even know why he felt like this. Perhaps it had to do with what the AI had said... Rhys squirmed more. Jacks grip just tightened and he felt a harsh bite on his shoulder. "Stop friggin' _squirming_ , kiddo." It was a command, and sure, the mans voice wasn't harsh, it didn't make Rhys feel any better about it.

" _ **Fucking let me go then!**_ " Rhys snapped, feeling his face go red. From embarrasmeny, anger, what, he didn't know. He felt Jack stop breathing for a moment, his arms tightening and loosening around Rhys as he seemed to be thinking how to react to that. Eventually, he let go, and Rhys rushed back to the bathroom, holding the towel around him as he stormed off, not turning to look back even once.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's be neat if you could leave a comment. Maybe it would cheer me up. Nothing else seems to be helping..


	31. Speak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god im so bad at respondinh to comments, im so sorry for that

Rhys sighed, looking into the mirror, at the stranger staring back at him. He had changed so much. It was like he didn't even know himself anymore. Maybe coming here had been a mistake. Maybe he should have stayed in his own time. On Helios. He should've just never left...

"Back already?" Rhys jumped slightly at the voice speaking into his ear. He turned around, coming nose to nose with the hologram Jack. He inhaled sharply and stepped back.

"Wha--" He sputtered, furrowing his brows at the man. What was the hologram doing here again? What did he want? Jack just smiled softly. Rhys frowned, clearing his throat. "Whats with you today?

"I just wanted to tell you to forget what I said. I wasn't being myself." Jack said, stopping for a moment, his gaze wandering around the room as he nervously rubbed his neck. "Ah, ya see, I-- _well for starters_ , my daughter-- who is, _ah_ , I mean _was_ dead-- is out there and she _hates_ me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know this is where we would be sent." Rhys muttered, lowering his gaze to the ground, tugging his towel a little higher up. He felt Jacks eyes on him again.

"Yeah, kiddo, I know. The Vault threw us here." A beat. " _You_. It... It threw you here."

"It threw us here, _yeah_ , but... Y'know. I shoulda figured." Rhys muttered, ignoring Jack when he acted as if only Rhys was real. Even though that was kind of true. Rhys pouted. "You see, last time, it threw me in way earlier, but it threw me into a moment that was important-- your birthday. You turned 30, a pretty important moment of your life."

"Your point is?" Jack questioned with an annoyed look spread across his face. Rhys had started pacing back and forth as he spoke, and Jacks gaze just followed him.

"This is another important moment of your life." Rhys said and stopped infront of Jack again, turning to face him.

"How so?" Jack cocked a brow, his tone questioning and confusion written all over his face.

"Today is the day your daughter was supposed to die." Rhys said in a sinister tone, a small smile tugging at his lips, and quickly Jacks entire demeanor switched. His shoulders tensed and his face turned into a scowl. Rhys furrowed his brows in amusement when he realised that Jack was also trying to take control of his arm. "Good try _pumpkin_ , but it's not gunna happen." He murmured as he sat onto the seat in the room, eyeing the washer, waiting for it to finish up so he could finally put his clothes on.

Jack appeares infront of Rhys' face, his entire being shaking with rage. "Screw you Rhys. I hope you die alone." He spat before he flickered away, leaving Rhys alone again.

The boy just chuckled darkly, standing up with a smirk dancing on his lips, the towel falling off of his slender hips and onto the ground in a pile. He stretched his body with a groan, a few joints popping as he did so.

He jumped at a sudden banging at the door, and he stood in confusion for a moment before tying the towel back around his hips and opening the door.

Big mistake.

Jack slammed the door wide open as he stepped in, shoving Rhys into the cold wall behind him. "I was thinkin', and decided that I ain't gunna letcha get away with talkin' to me like that." He snarled as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him as he came chest to chest with Rhys. The kid stood in slight shock as he stared into Jacks heterochromatic eyes.

"I-is that so?" Rhys cleared his throat and glared back at Jack, shaking off any previous fear. He stood straight, almost as intimidating as Jack himself. "Because just so you know... I'm more powerful than you in so many ways. In my time, I lead your armies-- I lead all the people who joined the new Atlas. I own Hyperion too. I killed you. I _destroyed_ you and _everything_ you've **_ever_** worked for." Jack frowned for a second before his hand flew up to wrap his fingers around Rhys' neck, causing the younger to flinch. Jack held on tightly as he glared Rhys.

"You've become a lot more of a brat since I last saw you." Jack grumbled as he forced Rhys to buckle his knees slightly as he looked down at him. Rhys just smirked, his cold cybernetic fingers softly brushing overs Jacks big ones.

"And you've become a lot douchier, _and_ , I gotta say, you're not as tactical and smart anymore." He purred, his gaze meeting Jacks glare and he smiled.

"The hell do you--" Jack was cut off by the loud screech abrupting from his throat when Rhys grabbed his fingers and gripped them tight. There was a loud crunch to be heard and Jack was dropping onto his knees with a cry when Rhys twisted his fingers a little bit, staring down at him with an expressionless look on his face.

"Next time, remember that I'm a Siren with a cybernetic arm. I can crush your bones with one hand and with the other I can explode your entire body into tiny pieces." Rhys snarled, stepping closer to Jack with a scowl on his face. "I'm fed up with your shit Jack. So start being nicer to me, wouldya?"

"Y-yeah." Was all Jack got out of his mouth as he stared at Rhys in utter shock. The kid let go of his hand and the man toppled backwards, holding his broken fingers with a look of pure terror on his face as he moved backwards, before finally standing up and rushing out of the room, yelling at Angel something about how he was going onto Helios for health reasons. Rhys just scoffed and smirked, noticing his clothes had finished washing, and grabbed them, putting them on before looking into the mirror with a satisfied sigh. He was losing it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appriciate all the love you all give me 


	32. Scared of myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry for taking so long...

"Jack?" His voice echoed in the bathroom. He wanted to talk to the hologram, and he had an idea how to get the mans attention. He took off his shirt, once again, and fiddled with the buttons in his cybernetic arm, making it go limp, alike to how it did when he passed out or fell asleep. He knew Jack could take control of it easier in that state.

"Jack, I'm giving you control of my arm." When there was no reaction, Rhys groaned. "Jack, come on." Still, nothing. "I'll even let you strangle me a little bit?" When even that didn't gain any kind of reactions, Rhys snapped. "Oh come on you fucking asshole, come out already!"

The lights of his cybernetic arm turned on and the fingers twitched.

And suddenly, Jack was standing there, next to him, moving his fingers with a bored expression on his face. He lifted his arm up, the cybernetic mirroring him. Rhys just stared at him blankly, lips tugging into the smallest of smiles.

But when Jack brought that hand near his neck, Rhys didn't feel like smiling anymore. Jacks-- or Rhys', depending on how you look at it-- fingers gently stroaked Rhys' neck, before slowly wrapping around it. It wasn't agressive, it was... almost sweet. Rhys swallowed.

But Jack never squeezed.

After a while, Rhys could hear Jack sigh as he pulled his hand away again, giving Rhys control of the arm. The younger gave a little sound of glee as he grinned, "So you don't really hate me after all, do you?"

"Nah."

Rhys laughed at his response.

"But I think the other me does." Jack said, his voice quieter.

"...yeah," The Atlas CEO sighed, looking at the ground.

"Why did you reject him on the couch? And why are ya being such an ass to him-- me?" While Rhys wanted to give him a long explanation about how the two weren't the same person and how the hologram shouldn't keep acting like he wasn't real, since AI's can be very human like, but instead he decided to only respond to one of his questions, not wanting to rant to Jack about how much he meant to him, and so on.

"I rejected him because-- because he isn't himself anymore. He's a whole different person completley," Rhys simply said, looking at the mirror again. Jack didn't have a reflection. "You're like a vampire." Rhys teased, wanting to change the subject already.

"So someone who doesn't exist." Jack said with a meek shrug. But Rhys had had enough.

"Oh for-- JACK. You exist, you're very real-- trust me, I was almost killed by you, I would know," He snarled, remembering how it felt to rip off his own arm-- he cringed at the thought before continuing. "Just because you're an AI right now, doesn't mean you're any less real." Jack looked him in the eyes, a confused look on his face. Rhys' eyes widened when he remembered why he had wanted to talk to the hologram. "That reminds me, I wanted to share a plan with you. A plan on how I'm going to get you your body back."

At that, Jacks eyes lit up, "Is that so, kiddo? Go ahead, tell me."

"Well..."

* * *

"You can't do that." Jack looked beyond shocked as he stared at Rhys, who was just standing there, looking at him like his opinion didn't even count.

"I can, and I'm going to." Rhys said in a flat tone. Jack stared at him furiously, flailing his holographic arms around him as he couldn't do anything physical to Rhys. It was annoying him beyond belief.

"No! No-- that's, stupid and, and it's--"

"Shut up! I could just decide to not give you a body at all!" Rhys snapped, glaring daggers at Jack. The hologram just turned around, his back facing the mirror as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Can't you just use one of my body doubles?" He complained, a pent up groan escaping his throat when Rhys shook his head.

"It would be too complex. They don't have cybernetics inside of them." The boy simply stated, looking straight at the hologram. Jack raised his head slowly to meet his eyes.

"How do you--" Jack sputtered and Rhys just shrugged.

"I have some of your memories. And I know about the port at your neck." He said, and Jacks hand flew to his neck, fingers tracing the outline of the port. He sneered, eyes snapping back to the ground.

"I- I don't have--" Why couldn't he recall any of this? Why were so many memories of his just-- gone? It was like... like he really wasn't himself. He wasn't Handsome Jack-- he wasn't even just Jack. He was nobody. He wasn't real. He was a hologram-- an AI. Not a person.

"I know you do. They're in your head, connected to your memories and crap, it's how you got your lost memories back when you entered the Helios system." Rhys explained, frowning the entire time. But when Jack didn't react in any way, he lifted his head to look at him.

"Don't you remember?" Still, no answer. The hologram wouldn't even look at him.

"Jack?" Finally, the AI snapped his head up and glared daggers at Rhys.

"Can you just... shut up?" He snarled, turning away as he faced the door, walking through it. Rhys sighed.

"Dammit..."

 


	33. A new plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what happens in this chapter, i didnt proof read it before this and ive had this written for MONTHS oh my god im terrible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry that im not updating anything, school is just really stressing me out.. I hope you guys still like me...

After arguing with Jack, Rhys had returned to the main area again, where Angel was all alone. "Hey, Angel," he spoke up, and the girl looked at him with a tired expression.

"What?" Rhys frowned slightly when the girl spoke in such a cold tone. He gave her a small smile, which she returned with a slight raise of a brow.

"How are you doing?" Rhys asked awkwardly, to which Angel just huffed.

"Just peachy," She said in an sarcastic voice, rolling her eyes. Rhys couldn't help but be reminded of Jack. 

"I know, stupid question." He sighed softly, placing his hand against the forcefield around Angel. She frowned slightly and came closer to him. "Jack isn't here, right?"

"No. To my knowledge, he is--" Angel paused for a second, her eyes glowing slightly, "still at the medbay on Helios." She looked down at Rhys with a tilt of her head, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I know he would never agree to, ah, you know. Me taking your powers." Rhys explained, waiting until he got a nod from the other Siren, "That's why I was thinking I could do that now." At that, Angels eyes widened, and she shook her head.

"He'd kill you-- besides, you can't get in here without him." The young girl looked off to the side with a sad look across her face, and Rhys couldn't help but smirk.

"Wanna bet?"

Angel brought her blue eyes back to Rhys. "Wha--?" But the man was nowhere to be seen. Angel looked around in confusion before feeling something cold against her shoulder, making her jump and turn around in slight shock. It was Rhys, he had poked her with his cybernetic ar, and was standing behind her with a wide grin. "How? Not even Lilith-- the most powerful Siren alive-- can do that. How is someone like you able to do it?"

"I have my original powers-- which is apparently to permanently steal others powers," he chuckled softly, running a hand through his hair, "but with that, I have Zarpedons powers, a slight bit of powers from Maya and the Eye of Helios, the powers from many Eridians, and two different Vaults and even a Vault monster." Rhys was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. He'd only left one out, but he wasn't going to share that secret with anyone else. He looked back at Angel with a cocky smile. The girl stared at him with a slacked jaw and wide eyes.

"How don't I know about you?" She finally asked.

"Let's just say, I'm not from around here," Rhys shrugged, "So, shall we?" His left hand was hovering over Angels markings. She frowned slightly before nodding. "This might hurt." Rhys warned before pressing his hand down. Immidiatley, Angel shrieked, falling to the ground, Rhys holding onto her still as her tattoos seemed to be moving into Rhys. The girl looked at him with teary eyes.

"Rhys... your tattoos--" Angel choked out. Rhys looked down, noticing them glow white as they moved around. It wasn't any different from any other times. He simply nodded.

Once most of her powers were gone, Rhys grabbed one of the pumps in her head and pulled it out with his cybernetic hand. Eridium started immidiatley pooling to the ground, and Angel let out a pained sound.

"Jack-- is coming back--" she wheezed, and Rhys took hold of the second pump, staring at it until he felt no more powers in Angel, and ripped it out aswell. Angel cried out and fell to the ground. Rhys dragged her out of the Eridium pool, pulling her up into his arms. The girl looked at him weakly. "Your tattoos. They're..." she trailed off, head rolling to the side as she passed out. Rhys looked down, seeing his tattoos glow blue, purple, pink, white and red, the colours peacefully pulsating around. He frowned slightly in confusion.

"Welcome back, Handsome."

Shit. Rhys stared at the door of the elevator, hearing it move down, before it arrived where he was. The doors slid open with a hiss and Jack stepped out. He opened his mouth to speak when he saw what was happening infront of him. He just stood there, in utter shock.

"She's alive." Rhys said before Jack came to any conclusions. The man pulled out his Echo and pressed a few buttons. Soon enough, the forcefield was flickering away. When Rhys looked around himself to look at it, his eyes landed on a certain blue hologram. He looked the same as the other Jack, exept he wasn't walking towards Rhys. The boy turned his head to face the real Jack, but the man was just staring at Angel.

"She's... her tattoos-- you did the same thing as you did with the Eye. And Lilith. I-- she's normal. She's not a siren." Jack rambled, pulling the girl out of Rhys' hold, his arms wrapping around her frail body gently. "My babygirl..."

"I'm... sorry?" Rhys said in a questioning tone, flinching slightly when Jack snapped his head up to look at him.

"No-- no, this is, this is amazing. God, kid, I can once again hold my babygirl in my arms..." Jack stared at him with wide eyes, before looking down at Angel again. He buried his face into her neck, closing his eyes tightly as he let out an almost inaudible sob. Rhys glanced over at the hologram, seeing the sad look in his eyes as he stared at Angel. Rhys smiled at him softly, and he flickered away. Rhys turned to look at Jack again.

"What about the Vault key?" He questioned, reminding Jack of it. He wouldn't be able to even use Lilith due to Rhys taking her powers.

Jack was quiet for a moment. "You're a Siren." He pointed out as he started walking towards the couch, Rhys following after.

The latter hummed with a smirk, "I'm a Siren, yes," he agreed, watching Jack lower Angel to the couch carefully, pulling out an Anshin and sticking it into Angels thigh. Rhys looked over at the Vault key. "And I'm more powerful than even Vault monsters," His voice was quieter, biting the inside of his cheek. He sighed softly when he felt Jacks hands on his hips.

"Mmhm..." Jack hummed into his neck, stepping closer to Rhys, arms slowly wrapping around the youngers body as he held him gently. "Ya really are somethin', aren'tcha?" He murmured, placing a soft kiss against Rhys' neck, having trailed a line up to his jaw when the younger turned around and pressed their lips together.

"I'm sorry I was an ass earlier," Rhys whispered when they parted, resting his forehead against Jacks, eyes still closed. He felt a puff of air against his face when the older man laughed softly.

"My hand forgives ya," Jack chuckled, planting a small kiss on the corner of Rhys' lips. The younger just grinned and shook his head before hiding into the crook of Jacks neck.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment,,


	34. A minor setback

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will eventually update all my fics..! Just bare with me, please? I love all of your comments, they give me life and motivation. I'll get along to responding them at some point, i promise..!

"Ya sure we shouldn't take her to the doctor?" Jack muttered as he sat on the floor next to the couch, brushing his fingers through Angels dark hair. He brushed over the ports at the side of her hair, and she whimpered. He removed his hand with a frown. Rhys glanced over at him and shook his head.

"She'll be fine. I did this to--" He hesitated slightly, "I've seen this happen before. She'll wake up soon, she'll feel a bit sick and probably throw up, but she'll be fine." Rhys finished with a shrug before turning his back at the two. Jack didn't know what he was thinking, feeling a bit worried. But when he asked the boy what was wrong, he just shook his head. "Nothing, Jack. I'm fine. Just thinking about things."

"Ya can talk to me, ya know." Jack stated, but Rhys just chuckled.

"You wouldn't understand." 

"I'll try." But Rhys just stayed quiet, causing Jack to frown even more. He sighed and turned back to Angel. "In that case, go charge the Vault key for me. I need it." 

"Fine," Rhys muttered and started taking his arm off and put it down next to Jack before he walked over to where the key and eridium was, picked up the two pumps and shoved one of them into the middle of his shoulder port, it being the only of his two ports that the pumps could fit, and held the other against his temple. He nodded at Jack to turn the damn things on, and hesitatingly, he did. 

The eridiun started flowing towards Rhys, and suddenly it was burning his entire body, in and out.

The side of his face felt like it had been shoved into the flames, the eridium pouring down from his temple over his cheekbones and down to his naked torso. He screamed in agony.

There was a yell for his name, but he didn't know which Jack it was coming from, not before the loud crack and a disorted, "NO-- STOP!" came through. That's when Rhys' eyes flew open-- one of them atleast. His ECHO-eye lense had broken and Jack was dying. He cried in pain as he tore away the pump from his head and yanked away from the other as well.

He collapsed with a cry.

"Rhys!" Jack had turned the pumps off, and soon enough, Rhys was being hauled into the older mans arms. 

Rhys chuckled weakly. "Guess my cybernetics couldn't handle it... Huh?"

"Don't pass out on me, you little shit..." Jack muttered, holding the boy close. He glanced at Angel, hoping she'd be alright while he was gone, and picked up the now unconsious siren from the floor and hurried to the elevator.

* * *

Rhys woke up in a white room. Was he dead...? No, that couldn't be the case. His siren powers would keep him alive. He attempted to scan the room he was in but--

But he didn't have an Echo-eye. 

He bolted up, sitting up straight in what he now recognized to be a hospital room, feeling himself start to hyperventilate. "N-no-- Jack, no he..." He muttered to himself, tearing himself loose from the hospital bed and stumbling through the room, crashing out of the door and into the hallway.

First thing he saw was Jack talking with a nurse, then turning and seeing Rhys on the floor, and soon enough he was being hauled back into his room. The boy was trashing all over the place, trying to get out of Jacks grip. "No! I need-- Echo-eye!"

"I'm getting you a new one, the old one was totally busted--"

"I DON'T CARE!" Rhys snapped, his powers activating as he shoved Jack away forcefully, sending him flying into the wall, small sparks of electricity bouncing around him.

Jack groaned, pulling himself up. "What the hell..?" He snarled, glaring at Rhys. The boy just whined and ran out of the room. He knew where they kept the patients belongings, but when he got there, theu ofcourse didn't have his Echo-eye. 

He figured the next best place to look was Nakayama. He was the one who had, after all, created the AI. He barged into the room, his hospital goun flying around like a cape as he took long strides to the scientist, forcing him up against a wall.

"WHERE IS MY ECHO-EYE!?" He yelled into the old mans face, and Nakayama just whimpered, raising his hands infront of his face. 

"Jack will be very mad--" Rhys cut him off, leaning close to his ear.

"Trust me, Jack can't hurt you half as bad as I can." He snarled, before pulling back and letting the man fall to the ground. "You're gonna fix it, make sure it wont kill me, and then put it back in my head. Along with my port." Tge scientist nodded quickly and pressed a few buttons on his computer, and soon enough it let out a hiss and a small glass box containing Rhys' cybernetics raised from the table.

"I must warn you, while I did fix it, and it does work, I did notice some... Weird programming in there. Could be because of the-- um, the fact that you're not from the same time, yes Jack told me that, but it seems more like a virus..." He trailed off when he looked up at Rhys, noticing the murderous look on his face. He was about to place the box in Rhys' outstreched hand when the doors to the lab slid open and Jack barged in.

"Do NOT give him the box before you figure out what the hell is on there that is so damn important!"

"Oh for-- What the hell do you think it contains?" Rhys spat, snatching the box from Nakayamas hand, "Some special high quality porn?! No! It has you on it-- it has AI Jack on it! The one I told you about!" He yelled, opening the box. "Now, if neither of you are gonna help me get this in safely, I'll just shove it into my head and hope for the best." 

Jack stared at him with a shocked expression, and Rhys thought he was about to give in, but then he pulled his gun out and Rhys found himself on the wrong end of the barrel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To contact me, you can find me on instagram under the user name @ninodinoart or @handsome_jackass


	35. Chapter 35

The gun was loaded, ready to shoot. He pointed it at Rhys, glaring at the younger with a glint of something dark in his eyes.

"Give the eye back to Nakataka, Rhys." He snarled, bringing his finger to the trigger as a warning. The boy simply chuckled, tossing the empty box at the scientist, who caught it before stepping back with a terrified look on his face.

"It's Nakayama, _Jack_." Rhys snarled back, bringing the ECHO USB near his port, drawing a circle around the outside of it. Jack growled and stepped closer, causing Rhys to raise his eyebrows before bringing the cybernetics down, a smirk playing at his lips. "You think you can hurt me with that little toy of yours?"

That really irked Jack, and he went to hit Rhys with the butt of the gun, but instead found himself flying through the air before it even touched the boy.

"You can't comprehend how much stronger I am, Jackie." Rhys' eye twitched. "I could destroy your entire spacestation with a snap of my fingers. Oh wait, I already did that once." He chuckled softly, bringing his ECHO systems into his flesh hand. Jack stared at him, confused. The boy started glowing, his powers activiting, his closed fist glowing the brightest.

He opened the fist, only to show a big ball of energy, and slammed his palm against the left side of his head, screaming in pain as he fell to his knees.

"Rhys!"

* * *

"...powers are too strong--"

"...ody can't han-- them..."

"...collar--"

"...for his own good..."

* * *

Rhys woke up in a white room.

Again.

He wasn't dead, he knew that much. He sat up, looking around himself. He wasn't in a normal hospital room.

No. This... This was a cell. Not like the one he'd thrown Yvette into, but a hospital cell. A hospital room on the jail level, he assumed.

"You think this is gunna keep me locked in?!" He yelled at the closest security camera, grinning wide as he hopped out of bed and walked over to the door, placing his palm to the metal.

He tried to activate his powers, but instead, a powerful shock ran through his entire body and he fell to the ground again.

"Gah! What the--" He brought his hands to his neck, and realised that the collar must've been a Siren collar. Ofcourse. "Y'know this can't hold me forever, right?" He snarled, tugging at the collar with an annoyed expression.

A voice came through one of the speakers. "I know. That's why we made one that's ten times stronger than any of the other ones. This would kill a normal Siren." Rhys stared up at the speaker, his annoyance morphing into fear.

"No-- you can't just keep me here forever--!" Rhys started yelling, but was cut off by a sudden blue static appearing to his right.

The holographic version of Jack was glitching slightly, the man floating in the air next to the boy, pixels flying all around him. The cybernetics had been damaged, but not enough to destroy Jack. Thank God. "Yeah, he can. But if he can keep me, that's a whole nother story." The man smirked at Rhys, nodding at the security camera. "Pull that shit out of the wall and grap some of the wires." With that, the man flickered away again.

Rhys sighed, but got up either way. He reached for the camera and yanked it out of the wall, doing as Jack told him to. The voice came through the speakers again, but Rhys ignored it.

"Now what?" He snapped, looking around himself until his eyes landed on the hologram. His mask was slightly out of place, his hand holding it to his face. Rhys frowned.

"Shove one end into your port and the other into the collar. So I can hack it from the inside." The hologram explained, and Rhys hesitated slightly, but did as told. Another shock ran through him, and he bit down on his tongue.

"Fuck!" He yelled, opening one eye to look for Jack. The man was nowhere to be seen.

After a few moments, the collar made a sound, shocked Rhys one last time, and fell to the ground. Rhys was writhing on the ground due to the pain, tears welling up in his eyes. "Shit..."

"Great work, cupcake. Now lets get outta here!" Rhys glanced at the hologram, grinning down at him, and sighed.

"Yeah, let me just... gah... That hurt." He moaned, rubbing his face as he slowly stood up. "Yeah, uh... lets go." He walked over to the door and was about to destroy it, but Jack stopped him.

"Try out some new powers. Phasewalk through it, do it like Lilith would. Or teleport, whatever. She does both." Rhys looked at him for a while before shrugging, his powers starting to glow orange, then turning his entire body purple as he walked through the door.

"That was... So cool! Jack, you saw that right?! I just straight up walked through that door!" Rhys was grinning wide, staring at the hologram and jumping up and down in exitement. Jack just chuckled dryly.

"We can talk bout that later, right now you should concentrate on getting out of here."

"Y-yeah, you're right. Where are we anyways...? Deck 14? I've never been here before. Aren't 13 and 14 some like private levels?" He glanced up at Jack, who was looking around aswell, a frown on his face.

"Yeah... They keep some of our test subjects here. And... Shit, Rhys, follow me." The hologram took off into the opposite direction of where Rhys was heading, causing the siren to groan as he turned around and followed the blue man. "Deck 13 1/2 is somewhere here! C'mon!"

"13 1/2...? Jack, what are you talking about?"

"There's digistruct machines there, well, I mean, they make people into AI's, I did that to Tim once when he went inside of the Claptrap."

"I'm... not gonna even ask."

**Author's Note:**

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> 
> http://ninosoderholm.tumblr.com
> 
> Come say hi ~


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